Translating Tricky English Structures | Serbian Grammar

Advanced translation fails when an English surface pattern is treated as a mold. English uses infinitives, -ing clauses, passives, dummy subjects, and fixed word order to express relations that Serbian distributes across finite да clauses, aspect, case, clitics, and information structure. A good translation first reconstructs who does what, when, and from whose viewpoint; only then does it choose Serbian grammar.

The strategies below are not replacement formulas. Each starts with a structural question: who is the hidden subject, is the event asserted or intended, and which participant should be the discourse topic?

English object + infinitive: expose the lower subject

English can place a noun between a matrix verb and an infinitive: I want Ana to come. Serbian normally makes the lower clause finite, and its verb shows the lower subject's person and number.

Желим да Ана дође раније.

I want Ana to come earlier.

Желим да дођем раније.

I want to come earlier.

In the first sentence, Ана is the overt subject of дође. In the second, first-person дођем identifies the matrix speaker as the understood actor. The literal sequence желим Ану доћи is not a standard Serbian equivalent.

Object-control verbs keep a matrix object because that person receives a role such as addressee or person persuaded:

Замолили смо Ану да закључа канцеларију.

We asked Ana to lock the office.

Accusative Ану is the person asked and the understood actor of закључа. English word order alone does not tell you whether the noun is a matrix object, an embedded subject, or both by interpretation. The lexical verb does.

English infinitive: da-clause, infinitive, or purpose?

With the same subject, Serbian often allows both да + present and an infinitive. The да construction is particularly frequent in contemporary Serbian speech; the infinitive remains standard and is common in concise, formal, and some regional usage.

Одлучио сам да сачекам још један дан.

I decided to wait one more day. (neutral everyday Serbian; male speaker)

Одлучио сам сачекати још један дан.

I decided to wait one more day. (concise/formal or regionally favored; male speaker)

An English to phrase may instead express purpose. Test whether it completes the matrix verb or answers “why?”

Отишао сам у архиву да проверим оригинал.

I went to the archive to check the original. (purpose; male speaker)

Покушао сам да проверим оригинал.

I tried to check the original. (complement; male speaker)

Both Serbian clauses contain да, but only the first states the purpose of going. Translation must recover the semantic relation rather than translate the particle to.

💡

Put a bracket around every English infinitive and write its subject above it. If the subject changes, Serbian normally needs a finite form capable of showing that change.

Seem, appear, and English raising

English moves the semantic subject into the matrix clause: The results seem to be reliable. Serbian naturally uses an impersonal matrix predicate and leaves the semantic subject inside a finite clause.

Чини се да ова процена почива на непотпуним подацима.

This assessment appears to be based on incomplete data.

Изгледа да је воз већ кренуо.

The train appears to have left already.

The assessment and the train do not “do” the seeming. Matrix чини се/изгледа remains third-person singular; процена and воз control agreement inside their own clauses. A calque such as процена се чини да... wrongly assigns the English raised position to Serbian.

The control and raising page treats dative experiencers and formal diagnostics in depth.

English -ing clauses: check the hidden subject

Serbian verbal adverbs are subject-controlled: the understood actor of читајући or завршивши must normally be the subject of the main clause. English tolerates compressed -ing modifiers that tempt translators into a dangling Serbian construction.

Читајући уговор, правница је означила три спорне одредбе.

While reading the contract, the lawyer marked three disputed provisions.

The lawyer both reads and marks. If the subjects differ, use a finite clause:

Док је правница читала уговор, клијент је записивао питања.

While the lawyer was reading the contract, the client wrote down questions.

Do not use читајући уговор, клијент... unless the client is the reader. The problem is hidden subject control, not punctuation.

English after doing also maps according to subject and aspect:

Пошто је завршила разговор, директорка је искључила телефон.

After finishing the conversation, the director turned off her phone.

Завршивши разговор, директорка је искључила телефон.

Having finished the conversation, the director turned off her phone. (formal/literary)

The second is a controlled past verbal adverb and is stylistically marked. It is not a general Serbian substitute for every English perfect -ing clause.

English passives: choose a Serbian information structure

English often selects a passive merely to keep the patient first. Serbian has at least three routes: се passive for a routine/process, бити + passive participle for a result or formal event, and an active clause with flexible order when the agent matters.

Пријаве се обрађују редоследом којим су примљене.

Applications are processed in the order in which they are received. (routine se-passive)

Све пријаве су обрађене до краја радног дана.

All applications were processed by the end of the working day. (completed result)

Пријаве је јутрос обрадила нова службеница.

The new clerk processed the applications this morning. (patient topic, explicit agent)

The last sentence keeps пријаве first but remains active; feminine службеница controls је...обрадила. Flexible order removes the need to copy the English passive mechanically.

Have/get something done: translate the event, not have

English causative have/get + object + participle says that the subject arranges for somebody else to act. Serbian chooses a construction suited to the actual scenario rather than using possession имати.

Однео сам ауто код мајстора да му замене кочнице.

I took the car to the mechanic to have its brakes replaced. (male speaker)

Мајстор ми је јуче заменио кочнице.

I had the mechanic replace my brakes yesterday. / The mechanic replaced my brakes for me yesterday.

The dative ми presents the speaker as beneficiary or affected owner; it does not make the speaker the mechanic. In administrative contexts a passive result may be enough:

Сви прозори су замењени током реновирања.

We had all the windows replaced during the renovation. / All the windows were replaced during the renovation.

Choose among an arranged-purpose description, an active service-provider clause, and a result passive according to what the discourse foregrounds.

English counterfactual tense: map the clause relation

English backshifts tense after if. Serbian normally uses да + present for an unreal present and да + perfect for an unreal past, with Conditional I in the result.

Да имам више простора, поставио бих већи сто.

If I had more space, I would put in a larger desk.

Да сам имао више простора, поставио бих већи сто.

If I had had more space, I would have put in a larger desk. (male speaker)

The English-looking past in if I had more space does not justify Serbian perfect сам имао when the lack is present. Time reference, not superficial tense shape, chooses the Serbian clause.

English clefts and rigid focus positions

English often uses It was X who... because its word order gives limited room for focus. Serbian can front or place the focused constituent late, reinforce it with управо/баш, and rely on intonation.

Управо је Милица пронашла грешку у табели.

It was Milica who found the error in the spreadsheet.

Грешку у табели пронашла је Милица, а не Марко.

It was Milica, not Marko, who found the error in the spreadsheet.

These are not interchangeable in every discourse. The first announces Milica as corrective focus early; the second preserves the error as topic and reserves the identity contrast for the end.

An edited formal passage

Чини се да су првобитни рокови били нереални. Након што је комисија прегледала документацију, одлучила је да предложи нови распоред како би сви учесници могли да доставе допуне. Пријаве које су већ биле обрађене нису поново провераване; остале је прегледао посебан тим.

The original deadlines appear to have been unrealistic. After reviewing the documentation, the committee decided to propose a new schedule so that all participants could submit supplements. Applications that had already been processed were not checked again; a special team reviewed the rest.

The passage avoids English raising with чини се да, makes the commission the controller of да предложи, uses a finite purpose clause for a new plural subject, and alternates passive with a final active clause when the agent becomes informative.

Common Mistakes

Copying an English object plus infinitive

❌ Очекујем Марка стићи до подне.

Incorrect — Serbian does not use this bare object-plus-infinitive frame for ‘I expect Marko to arrive.’

✅ Очекујем да Марко стигне до подне.

I expect Marko to arrive by noon.

Creating a dangling verbal adverb

❌ Прегледајући рачуне, појавиле су се две грешке.

Incorrect — the sentence makes две грешке the grammatical controller of прегледајући, although errors cannot inspect invoices.

✅ Док смо прегледали рачуне, уочили смо две грешке.

While reviewing the invoices, we noticed two errors.

Raising the English subject into Serbian

❌ Воз се изгледа да касни.

Incorrect neutral Serbian — impersonal изгледа takes a finite да clause containing the subject.

✅ Изгледа да воз касни.

The train appears to be late.

Using imati as an English causative have

❌ Имао сам кочнице замењене јуче.

Unnatural calque for arranged service — Serbian does not build the ordinary causative from имати plus a passive participle.

✅ Јуче су ми заменили кочнице.

I had my brakes replaced yesterday. / They replaced my brakes yesterday.

Practice

Task 1: expose the subjects

Translate “After checking the figures, Ana asked Marko to send the table.” Ana checks; Marko sends.

Пошто је проверила бројке, Ана је замолила Марка да пошаље табелу.

After checking the figures, Ana asked Marko to send the table.

Task 2: choose the voice

Give a routine version and a completed-result version of “The rooms are cleaned.”

Собе се чисте сваког јутра. Све собе су очишћене пре доласка гостију.

The rooms are cleaned every morning. All the rooms were cleaned before the guests arrived.

Key Takeaways

Reconstruct hidden subjects before translating English infinitives and -ing clauses.
Use finite Serbian clauses when person must be expressed; keep infinitives and verbal adverbs only where their control relation is licensed.
Translate English raising impersonally, and choose passive or active voice by discourse function.
Do not map English tense morphology or causative have word for word.
Serbian case, aspect, clitics, and flexible information structure often express distinctions that English packages in word order.

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