Serbian 101 · Grammar
The first verb, and the only one that comes in two sizes.
Serbian has two sets of forms for to be, and both are correct. The short ones — sam, si, je, smo, ste, su — are what you'll say ninety-five percent of the time. The long ones — jesam, jesi, jeste, jesmo, jeste, jesu — are for emphasis, for questions, and for answering yes.
English does something similar without noticing. I'm tired is the everyday version; I am tired, with the stress landing on am, is the emphatic one. Serbian just gives the two versions different spellings.
Potvrdni oblik
Orange is the one you'll actually use.
| Person | Long | Short | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| ja | jesam | sam | I am |
| ti | jesi | si | you are |
| on / ona / ono | jeste | je | he, she, it is |
| mi | jesmo | smo | we are |
| vi | jeste | ste | you are |
| oni / one / ona | jesu | su | they are |
Odrični oblik
Here Serbian is kinder than English: one form only, no helper verb, no contraction to learn.
| Person | Negative | English |
|---|---|---|
| ja | nisam | I am not |
| ti | nisi | you aren't |
| on / ona / ono | nije | he, she, it isn't |
| mi | nismo | we aren't |
| vi | niste | you aren't |
| oni / one / ona | nisu | they aren't |
Notice the shape: ni- + the short form, all in one word. Ni + sam = nisam. The only one that doesn't follow neatly is the third person — je becomes nije, not "nije se" or anything longer. And unlike the affirmative, the negative has no second version: nisam is both the everyday form and the emphatic one.
The short forms are clitics — words too weak to stand alone. They can never begin a sentence. They lean on the word in front of them, which means they land in second position, always.
Ja sam profesor. — fine
Profesor sam. — also fine, and more natural
Sam profesor. — impossible, nothing for sam to lean on
Jesam profesor. — possible, because the long form is strong enough to start
This is why the long forms exist at all. When there's nothing in front, you reach for jesam. And when someone asks Jesi li ti profesor?, the natural full answer is Jesam. — one word, no pronoun, complete.
For questions, two shapes are common: Da li si ti profesor? and Jesi li ti profesor? The first is the safe workhorse; the second is a little more direct. Both are everywhere.
Play it
A Wordwall round, then the lane game where the right form of BITI runs past you.
Glagol biti — matching round
Igraj ovde, bez odlaska
Run through the correct present-tense form of BITI — first singular, then plural, then everything mixed. The whole lesson, at speed.
Print it
Four PDFs for the verb that everything else is built on.
Five exercises drill this verb at 101 level — start with the first and work down the list.
To Be, Exercise 1 →Serbian 101
Thirty letters, thirty sounds, and not a single silent one.
BasicsNine everyday phrases, and the TI/VI decision behind them.
BasicsOne to ten — nine never change, and then there's jedan.
VocabularyTwelve colours, and the first place grammar becomes visible.
GrammarMoj, moja, moje — the words that pair with je in every introduction.
GrammarThe dictionary form, and the case every other case is measured against.