Serbian 501 — one verb, two aspects, and the question that decides between them every time.
Serbian does not ask when did it happen so much as did it finish. That is aspect, and raditi / uraditi is the cleanest pair to learn it on.
| RADITI nesvršeni | URADITI svršeni | |
|---|---|---|
| What it shows | the process, the activity, the duration | the result, the finished thing |
| Past | radio / radila / radili sam | uradio / uradila / uradili sam |
| Present | radim, radiš, radi — real present | uradim — never a present meaning |
| Typical company | koliko dugo, ceo dan, dok, uvek | već, danas, konačno, kada |
The single most useful clue is koliko dugo. Duration is process, so duration takes raditi: Koliko dugo si radio taj domaći? Asking how long something took you cannot be perfective — the perfective has no inside, only an endpoint.
The mirror clue is koliko plus a countable thing. Koliko stvari si uradila danas? — you are counting finished results, so it is perfective. Same question word, opposite aspect, and the noun after it decides.
One more thing English speakers trip on: uradim looks like a present tense and is not one. A perfective verb cannot describe something happening right now, because right now is unfinished by definition. So uradim only lives inside constructions like kada uradiš, ako uradim, moram da uradim — a future or hypothetical completion.
Notice too that Koliko dugo radite u ovoj firmi? is present in Serbian where English insists on have been working. If the job is still going, Serbian keeps it in the present. There is no perfect tense to reach for.
Type the right form of RADITI or URADITI.
1. Gde si pre nego što si se zaposlio na univerzitetu? where were you working m. sg.
2. Koliko dugo si taj domaći? how long were you doing m. sg.
3. Toliko toga ste danas! Hvala! you have done so much pl.
4. Da li si domaći? have you done f. sg.
5. Koliko dugo u ovoj firmi? how long have you been working vi
6. Mi smo zajedno. we were working pl.
7. Koliko stvari si danas? how many things have you done f. sg.
8. Da li možeš da dođeš kada taj domaći? when you finish it
SR (lat): Upisuje se samo glagolski oblik, bez pomoćnog glagola. Latinicom ili ćirilicom.
СР (ћир): Уписује се само глаголски облик, без помоћног глагола. Латиницом или ћирилицом.
EN: Type only the verb form, without the auxiliary. Latin or Cyrillic, diacritics optional.