Subject Control and the da-Clause

English often leaves the subject of an infinitive unspoken: in I want to come, “I” is understood as the person coming. Serbian can express the same dependency with да + present, and the present ending makes the controlled subject visible: Желим да дођем. It can also use a standard infinitive, Желим доћи, where the subject remains unexpressed and is recovered from the matrix clause.

This is subject control: the matrix subject supplies the understood actor of the complement. The conjunction да does not automatically introduce a different subject. A different subject is possible only when the matrix predicate and the intended meaning license a full finite proposition.

The central three-way contrast

In the first sentence, first-person дођем identifies the speaker as the embedded actor. In the infinitival version, доћи cannot mark person, so matrix subject “I” supplies the actor. In the third sentence, nominative Ана and third-person дође establish a new embedded subject.

The three constructions are not a scale from informal to correct. Да + present is extremely common in contemporary Serbian, especially in speech. The infinitive is also standard Serbian and is productive with many same-subject verbs; its frequency varies by predicate, genre, region, and individual speaker. It is often favored in concise instructions and formal prose, but it is not limited to those registers.

Intention and volition

Verbs such as желети, хтети, намеравати naturally control a same-subject complement.

The first-person plural ending -мо in обновимо matches намеравамо. The infinitive разговарати lacks agreement, but its actor is understood as the feminine subject of хтела је.

When желети introduces an overt new subject, the finite clause is essential:

Plural деца controls јаве and стигну. Matrix “we” is the recipient expressed by dative clitic нам, not the actor of those embedded verbs.

Decision, attempt, and success

Одлучити, покушати, настојати, успети commonly have a same-subject interpretation. The lexical meaning explains the control relation: the decider, attempter, or successful participant is normally the person who performs the lower action.

Changing the person after да can change the construction rather than merely make the subject explicit:

This is a decision about Mina, not the same-subject meaning “I decided to go.” With покушати, a different subject is much less freely licensed; speakers normally reformulate the causative idea, for example with покушати да наговори/омогући. Control possibilities depend on the matrix verb, not on да alone.

Ability, obligation, and phase verbs

Modal моћи and морати normally share their subject with the following action. Both complement types are standard where the predicate licenses them.

The person is stated once on могу/морам and again on останем/кренем in the finite version. That apparent repetition is ordinary Serbian agreement, not evidence for two different actors.

Phase verbs such as почети, наставити, престати also favor a shared actor:

With phase verbs, an imperfective complement is natural because the construction locates a phase inside an activity. A perfective complement can occur only where its lexical and aspectual interpretation is coherent; the phase verb does not erase aspect.

A new subject needs a finite architecture

English I need Ana to come or I expect Marko to call encourages a bare noun plus infinitive. Standard Serbian normally uses a finite clause whose nominative subject controls its verb.

Do not force a personal modal to host somebody else's obligation:

The literal calque морам Ану доћи would wrongly combine first-person obligation with an accusative noun and a subjectless infinitive. If the speaker's role is evaluation rather than obligation, an impersonal predicate can be used: Неопходно је да Ана дође.

Object control is a different dependency

With замолити, наговорити, убедити, a matrix object is the person directed or persuaded and supplies the understood lower actor.

Accusative аутора belongs to наговорила, but it is understood as the subject of скрати. Compare:

Now dative аутору is merely the recipient of the promise; subject уредница controls the unspoken actor of ће скратити. A nearby noun is not automatically the controller. The advanced control and raising page develops these formal diagnostics.

Clitics belong inside the finite complement

Because a да complement is finite, it has its own clitic domain. The connector provides an early host.

In да ти га пошаљем, first-person пошаљем identifies the matrix speaker as sender; dative ти precedes accusative га. In да ми се јавиш, second-person јавиш identifies the addressee as the embedded actor. See clitics with da for the complete cluster behavior.

Common Mistakes

Mismatching person in a same-subject complement

The original sentence is grammatical, but it means “I want you to come earlier.” This is a meaning error, not meaningless Serbian.

Copying an English object plus infinitive

Claiming that da always changes the subject

Moving embedded clitics beside the matrix verb

Practice

Task 1: switch the controller

Express first “I decided to go,” then “I decided that Jelena would go.”

Task 2: choose a documented infinitive

Rewrite the same-subject да complement with an infinitive, keeping the concise style.

Key Takeaways

• Same-subject да + present is a central contemporary Serbian complement pattern; да does not inherently signal a new subject.
• A standard infinitive can express the same controlled relation with many verbs, especially in concise, formal, or regionally favored usage.
• An overt different subject needs a finite clause and must be licensed by the matrix predicate.
• Person endings after да identify the lower actor; mismatching them changes who acts.
• Object-control verbs and subject-control verbs assign the understood lower subject to different matrix participants.