ponavljati / ponoviti (to repeat)

Ponoviti ("to repeat, do again") is one of the most useful verbs a learner can own, because the most natural way to survive a conversation you didn't quite catch is to say Možete li ponoviti? ("Could you repeat that?"). Beyond the classroom, it covers repeating a year of school, repeating an experiment, going over material before an exam, and — reflexively — history repeating itself. The aspect pair is perfective ponoviti versus imperfective ponavljati, and that imperfective shows off a tidy sound change: the v → vlj jotation that turns the stem ponav- into ponavlj- (ponavljam, ponavljati). The same -lj- surfaces in the perfective's passive participle ponovljen.

Aspect

The split is the everyday perfective/imperfective one. Ponoviti = say or do it one more time (done): Možeš li ponoviti? ("Can you say that again?"). Ponavljati = do it repeatedly, or "go over / revise": Ponavljam gradivo za ispit ("I'm revising the material for the exam"). A learner's instinct: a single "say it again" is ponoviti; nagging, drilling, revising, or "I keep telling you" is ponavljati. This is a suffixal pair — the imperfective is built with the -ja- suffix, which triggers the jotation; see forming aspect pairs by suffixation.

Present tense

The perfective ponoviti is a regular i-class verb (ponovim); the imperfective ponavljati is a regular a-class verb on the jotated stem (ponavljam).

The perfective present ponovim is not a "now" tense: Ako ponovim na glas, lakše pamtim ("If I repeat it out loud, I remember it more easily"). For the action in progress — drilling, revising — you need ponavljam.

The l-participle

Both are regular: masculine ponovio / ponavljao (vocalised -l).

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. The everyday "I repeated / said again" is the perfective ponovio sam; the imperfective ponavljao sam marks a habit ("I kept repeating / I used to revise").

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive ponoviti drops its final -i before the ću-clitics: written ponovit ću. The imperfective gives ponavljat ću.

Imperative

The perfective ponovi! ("say it again, do it once more") is the normal command; the imperfective ponavljaj! leans toward "keep repeating / keep drilling".

A practical aspect note: the affirmative one-off command uses the perfective (ponovi), but a negative "stop repeating it" flips to the imperfective: Ne ponavljaj to više ("Don't keep saying that").

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle — for polite requests and softened asks.

Other forms

• Passive participle: ponovljen, ponovljena, ponovljeno ("repeated"). The -lj- comes from the same jotation as the imperfective: an -iti verb on a labial stem (ponov-) inserts the epenthetic -lj- — ponoviti → ponovljen, exactly like postaviti → postavljen. Used in ponovljeno snimanje ("a re-take") and the passive: Eksperiment je ponovljen tri puta. The imperfective gives ponavljan.
• Verbal adverb: imperfective ponavljajući ("[while] repeating"). The perfective has no present adverb (perfectives never do).

Key uses and government

1. Repeat something: accusative

The thing you repeat is a plain accusative object — a word, a question, a year, an experiment. See the accusative direct object.

The bare Možete li ponoviti? (no object) is the polite, all-purpose "Could you repeat that?" — the single most useful thing to memorise from this page.

2. Repeat a school year / a course: accusative

A frequent collocation: ponoviti razred / godinu means to repeat (i.e. not pass) a school year. Imperfective ponavljati razred describes being a repeater.

3. ponavljati se — "recur / repeat itself"

With se, the imperfective becomes reflexive and intransitive: an event "recurs" or "keeps happening". This is the "history repeats itself" use. The se here is the lexical/middle kind, covered under reflexive uses of se.

4. ponoviti vs pokazati — "say again" vs "show again"

When you want something demonstrated rather than restated, the verb is pokazati ("show"), not ponoviti. Možete li ponoviti? asks for words again; Možete li pokazati? asks for a demonstration — see pokazati.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• ponoviti (pf, ponovim, ponovio) = repeat once; ponavljati (impf, ponavljam, ponavljao) = repeat over and over / revise — note the v → vlj jotation.
• Object = accusative (a question, a year, an experiment).
• The survival phrase is Možete li ponoviti? ("Could you repeat that?").
• Reflexive ponavljati se = "recur / repeat itself" (Povijest se ponavlja).
• Passive participle ponovljen (the same -lj- jotation). Future drops -i: ponovit ću (never ponoviti ću).