Interrogative Pronouns: ko, što, koji | Serbian Grammar

Serbian asks about a person with ко “who,” about a thing, action, or idea with шта/што “what,” and about a choice from an identifiable set with који “which.” Unlike English who and what, these pronouns change case according to their role inside the question. Који also agrees with the gender and number of an expressed or understood noun.

The central question is therefore not only “person, thing, or choice?” but also “what grammatical role does the missing information have?” The broader wh-question guide places these pronouns alongside interrogative adverbs such as где, када, and како.

Person, Thing, or Choice?

Question word	What it asks for	Example prompt
ко	identity of a person	Ко долази?
шта / што	thing, action, content, or situation	Шта тражиш?
који / која / које	selection or identification from a set	Који аутобус иде до центра?

Ко је оставио кишобран поред врата?

Who left an umbrella by the door?

Шта желиш да наручиш за ручак?

What would you like to order for lunch?

Коју кошуљу ћеш обући за разговор за посао?

Which shirt will you wear to the job interview?

Ко asks for an unknown person's identity. Шта asks openly for content. Коју кошуљу presupposes a relevant set of shirts and asks the listener to select one.

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Use који when the noun can naturally be supplied after English which: који дан, која улица, које место. Use ко for a person's identity and шта for unrestricted “what?”

Ко Through the Cases

Case	Form	Typical role
nominative	ко	subject
genitive	кога	possession; after genitive prepositions
dative	коме	recipient, experiencer
accusative	кога	direct object
instrumental	ким / киме	companion; means in marked contexts
locative	коме	topic after о

There is no vocative because an interrogative does not directly address the unknown person. Genitive and accusative share кога; dative and locative share коме. Government and meaning identify the case.

Кога чекаш испред биоскопа?

Who are you waiting for outside the cinema?

Коме си послала коначну верзију извештаја?

Who did you send the final version of the report to?

С ким идеш на концерт у суботу?

Who are you going to the concert with on Saturday?

О коме сте разговарали после седнице?

Who did you talk about after the meeting?

English often leaves who unchanged and may strand a preposition at the end. Serbian normally puts the preposition before the correctly inflected question word: с ким, о коме, од кога.

Шта and Што Through the Cases

For neutral contemporary Serbian, шта is the most usual independent nominative/accusative question form. Што is also standard as a pronoun in certain styles and constructions, but it is more strongly associated with relative што, the conjunction што, and (informal or regional, depending on context) “why?” Asking Што касниш? means “Why are you late?”, not simply “What are you late?”

Case	Form	Example frame
nominative	шта / што	Шта се догодило?
genitive	чега	без чега?
dative	чему	чему служи?
accusative	шта / што	шта читаш?
instrumental	чим / чиме	чим путујеш?
locative	чему	о чему?

Чега се највише сећаш са тог путовања?

What do you remember most from that trip?

Чему служи ово дугме на апарату?

What is this button on the device for?

Чиме се бавиш кад ниси на факултету?

What do you do when you are not at university?

О чему размишљаш цело јутро?

What have you been thinking about all morning?

The oblique stem ч- is irregular from an English learner's perspective: шта → чега, чему, чиме. There is no productive rule that lets you predict that stem merely from English, so learn the six-case set as a unit.

Који: Agreement Plus Case

Који declines in the pronominal adjective pattern. Its gender and number come from the noun being selected; its case comes from that phrase's role in the question.

Case	Singular m / f / n	Plural m / f / n
N	који / која / које	који / које / која
G	којег(а) or ког(а) / које / којег(а) or ког(а)	којих
D	којем(е) or ком(е) / којој / којем(е) or ком(е)	којима
A	који or којег(а)/ког(а) / коју / које	које / које / која
I	којим / којом / којим	којима
L	којем(е) or ком(е) / којој / којем(е) or ком(е)	којима

Masculine singular accusative again follows animacy: Који филм гледаш? but Којег глумца познајеш?

Којим путем обично идеш до станице?

Which route do you usually take to the station?

У којој соби ће бити састанак?

Which room will the meeting be in?

Којим кандидатима сте понудили уговор?

Which candidates did you offer a contract to?

The question word need not be adjacent to the answer slot in English, but Serbian case makes the relation explicit. Којим кандидатима is dative because they are recipients of the offer.

Question Words Are Full Forms; Answers May Use Clitics

Ко, шта, који and their case forms are stressed interrogatives, not clitics. In an answer, however, a personal pronoun may be full when it is contrastive or clitic when it is backgrounded:

— Коме си дала резервни кључ? — Њему, не његовој сестри.

‘Who did you give the spare key to?’ ‘To him, not to his sister.’

— Коме си дала резервни кључ? — Дала сам му га јутрос.

‘Who did you give the spare key to?’ ‘I gave it to him this morning.’

In the first answer, full њему bears contrast. In the second, dative му and accusative га form a clitic cluster after auxiliary сам: сам му га. The interrogative коме has not “turned into” a clitic; the answer chooses a different personal-pronoun form because the referent is now known and unstressed.

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Question words carry focus and are therefore full, stressed forms. Clitic choice matters in the answer, after the unknown person or thing has become established discourse information.

Word Order and Omitted Subjects

Serbian has no English-style do support. A question word normally comes first, while the finite verb itself shows person. Subject pronouns are omitted unless contrast is intended.

Шта радиш после предавања?

What are you doing after the lecture?

А шта ти радиш после предавања?

And what are you doing after the lecture?

The second ти is natural only when it contrasts the listener with somebody else or resets the topic. It is not required simply because English says you.

Clitics follow their normal second-position order after a question phrase:

Коју си јој књигу препоручио?

Which book did you recommend to her?

The first constituent is коју; the cluster си јој follows it. English order cannot be transferred as коју јој си.

Свој in Questions

Use свој when the possessor is the subject of the same clause:

Ко је оставио свој телефон у сали?

Who left their own phone in the hall?

Ко је оставио његов телефон у сали?

Who left his phone in the hall?

The first asks which person left that person's own phone. In the second, његов refers to a separately identifiable male possessor.

Practice Tasks

Task 1: Choose and decline

Ask for the missing element: (1) долази? “Who is coming?” (2) Са разговараш? “Who are you talking with?” (3) У _ улици живиш? “Which street do you live on?”

Answers: Ко долази? Са ким разговараш? У којој улици живиш?

Task 2: Make the answer neutral

Replace the contrastive answer Њој, не Марку with a neutral sentence meaning “I sent it to her yesterday.”

Answer: Послао сам јој га јуче. The auxiliary, dative, and accusative clitics form the cluster сам јој га.

Common Mistakes

Leaving ко unchanged after a preposition

❌ Са ко идеш на изложбу?

Incorrect — са requires instrumental ким.

✅ С ким идеш на изложбу?

Who are you going to the exhibition with?

Using шта where an oblique form is required

❌ О шта сте разговарали на паузи?

Incorrect — о requires locative чему.

✅ О чему сте разговарали на паузи?

What did you talk about during the break?

Missing agreement on који

❌ Који улицу тражите?

Incorrect — feminine accusative улицу requires коју.

✅ Коју улицу тражите?

Which street are you looking for?

Copying English clitic order

❌ Коју јој си фотографију послао?

Incorrect — the auxiliary precedes the dative clitic in the second-position cluster: си јој.

✅ Коју си јој фотографију послао?

Which photograph did you send her?

Adding a neutral subject pronoun mechanically

❌ Где ти живиш?

Overexplicit as a neutral information question — ти adds contrastive focus.

✅ Где живиш?

Where do you live?

Key Takeaways

Ко asks for a person, шта/што for a thing or content, and који for a choice from a set.
Case is determined by the unknown element's role inside the question.
Који additionally agrees with the gender and number of its noun.
Interrogatives are full stressed forms; known personal-pronoun answers may be full or clitic depending on emphasis.
Serbian omits neutral subject pronouns and places clitic clusters after the first constituent.

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