Доносити — донети and односити — однети describe carrying an object toward or away from a relevant place. The до- family brings the object to the deictic goal; the од- family removes it from the point that matters. Each direction then has an imperfective member for process or repetition and a perfective member for one bounded transfer. English bring and take are helpful, but Serbian requires you to choose direction, aspect, participant type, and destination together.
Four principal paradigms
| Form | доносити (impf.) | донети (pf.) | односити (impf.) | однети (pf.) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| present | доносим, доносиш, доноси, доносимо, доносите, доносе | донесем, донесеш, донесе, донесемо, донесете, донесу | односим, односиш, односи, односимо, односите, односе | однесем, однесеш, однесе, однесемо, однесете, однесу |
| l-participle | доносио / доносила | донео / донела | односио / односила | однео / однела |
| imperative | доноси, доносимо, доносите | донеси, донесимо, донесите | односи, односимо, односите | однеси, однесимо, однесите |
| future, 1st singular | доносићу | донећу | односићу | однећу |
The perfectives are morphologically irregular enough to memorize as chains: донети — донесем — донесу — донео/донела — донеси — донећу and the parallel однети — однесем — однесу — однео/однела — однеси — однећу.
Курир нам доноси пошту сваког радног дана око поднева.
The courier brings us the mail every workday around noon.
Донела сам ти резервну картицу, као што смо се договориле.
I brought you the spare card, as we agreed. (female speaker addressing a female)
До- toward the relevant goal, од- away from it
The relevant point need not literally be where the speaker is standing. It can be the addressee’s location, the office being discussed, or the destination around which the conversation is organized.
Кад дођеш у канцеларију, донеси уговор у салу за састанке.
When you get to the office, bring the contract into the meeting room.
После презентације однеси пројектор у магацин и предај кључ портиру.
After the presentation, take the projector to the storeroom and hand the key to the caretaker.
In the first sentence, the meeting room is the goal toward which the object is brought. In the second, the projector is removed from the presentation setting. English sometimes uses take even toward an addressee (take this to Ana); Serbian selects донети if Ana’s location is construed as the goal and однети if removal from here is foregrounded.
The wider carrying-and-transport guide compares these verbs with водити and возити families.
The carried item and its destination
The object carried is accusative: донети пакет, однети кутије. A human recipient can be dative; spatial destinations retain their normal preposition and case.
Донећу лекарки резултате у амбуланту чим буду готови.
I'll bring the results to the doctor at the clinic as soon as they're ready.
Однели су старе рачунаре на рециклажу, а исправне су поклонили школи.
They took the old computers for recycling and donated the working ones to a school.
In лекарки резултате, dative marks the recipient and accusative the item. У амбуланту and на рециклажу use accusative because they name directional goals.
A source may appear with из + genitive for an interior or са + genitive for a surface or event setting.
Однеси празне шоље са терасе у кухињу пре него што почне киша.
Take the empty cups from the terrace into the kitchen before it starts raining.
Aspect within each direction
Imperfective доносити/односити presents repeated transport or an event in progress. Perfective донети/однети presents one arrival or removal as completed.
Док су волонтери односили пакете до комбија, почео је јак пљусак.
While the volunteers were carrying the parcels to the van, a heavy downpour began.
Чим однесемо опрему у студио, вратићемо комби власнику.
As soon as we take the equipment to the studio, we'll return the van to its owner.
Perfective present однесемо is licensed in the future time clause. The past does not itself choose aspect: односили су and однели су are both past, but the first opens the transfer internally and the second counts it as a whole.
Раније је сваког петка доносила ручак баки; јуче јој је донела и лекове.
She used to bring lunch to her grandmother every Friday; yesterday she brought her some medicine too.
This minimal contrast holds direction constant and changes only viewpoint: repeated доносила versus one bounded донела.
Things versus accompanied people
These носити-based verbs normally construe the object as carried or conveyed. For a person or animal who moves under guidance or accompaniment, use доводити — довести and одводити — одвести. If vehicle transport is central, довозити — довести and одвозити — одвести have distinct finite stems.
Донеси детету јакну, а затим га доведи у двориште.
Bring the child a jacket, and then bring the child into the courtyard.
The jacket is донети; the child is довести. Using донети дете would normally suggest physically carrying the child, which is possible for a baby but wrong for ordinary accompaniment.
Понети adds another viewpoint: take something along when setting out.
Понеси документа од куће, па их донеси право на шалтер.
Take the documents with you from home, then bring them straight to the counter.
The first verb packages departure with the item; the second packages arrival at the service counter.
Clitics and the affected dative
With донети, a dative clitic commonly marks the recipient. With однети, a dative can mark someone from whose sphere an object is removed. In both cases, dative precedes accusative.
Тражио си извештај, па сам ти га донео јутрос.
You asked for the report, so I brought it to you this morning. (male speaker)
Неко ми је однео кишобран из ходника и оставио други.
Someone took my umbrella from the hallway and left another one.
Марина ми га је донела, а Петар ми га је касније однео.
Marina brought it to me, and Petar later took it away from me.
The identical ми га је cluster does not itself encode direction. The lexical prefixes до- and од- do.
Passive се and unrelated односити се на
Routine delivery or collection can suppress the agent with се:
Пошта се доноси до поднева, а папир за рециклажу се односи петком.
Mail is delivered by noon, and paper for recycling is collected on Fridays.
Agreement follows the grammatical subject: пошта се доноси, пакети се доносе.
Do not confuse directional односити нешто with lexical reflexive односити се на + accusative, meaning refer/apply to. This construction has no removal meaning and does not form a perfective by substituting однети.
Ово правило се односи на све пријаве поднете после првог маја.
This rule applies to all applications submitted after the first of May.
Abstract meanings and register
Донети is productive in light-verb collocations such as донети одлуку, донети закон, донети корист. English often uses make or pass, not bring.
Одбор ће донети коначну одлуку после јавне расправе.
The committee will make the final decision after the public hearing. (formal)
Однети победу (win/claim victory) is common in sports and journalistic language. Однети животе (claim lives) is (journalistic) and generally used for disasters, war, or disease.
Невреме је однело два живота и оштетило више десетина кућа.
The storm claimed two lives and damaged dozens of houses. (journalistic)
These are lexical collocations, not literal carrying scenes.
Ijekavian forms
This guide uses the Ekavian baseline донети, однети, донео, однео. Standard Ijekavian Serbian has донијети, однијети, донио, однио and feminine донијела, однијела. Use one reflex consistently inside a text; do not mix донијети with Ekavian донео as though they were one paradigm.
Commands and a micro-dialogue
Perfective донеси/однеси normally requests one completed transfer. Imperfective commands can establish routines: доноси извештај сваког петка.
„Да ли да понесем узорке из лабораторије?“ — „Да, донеси их мени, а празне кутије однеси у архиву.“ — „У реду, завршићу до три.“
‘Should I take the samples from the laboratory with me?’ — ‘Yes, bring them to me, and take the empty boxes to the archive.’ — ‘All right, I'll finish by three.’
Practice Tasks
Task 1: Draw the directional arrows
Describe a courier who repeatedly brings parcels to an office and then takes empty crates away. Use both imperfectives. Then report one completed delivery and removal with both perfectives.
Task 2: Choose by participant
Translate Bring Ana the folder and bring her colleague into the room. Choose донети for the folder and довести for the moving person; mark Ana as dative and the colleague as animate accusative.
Common Mistakes
❌ Сутра донесим ти уговор.
Incorrect — донесим is not a standard form, and weak ти cannot follow the lexical verb there; use донећу ти / ћу ти донети or ћу да ти донесем.
✅ Сутра ћу да ти донесем уговор.
Tomorrow I'll bring you the contract.
❌ Однео сам дете у школу пешке.
Wrong transport verb for an accompanied child — однети suggests physically carrying the child.
✅ Одвео сам дете у школу пешке.
I walked the child to school. (male speaker)
❌ Курир је доносио један пакет и предао га у девет.
Wrong viewpoint for one completed arrival and handover — use донео.
✅ Курир је донео један пакет и предао га у девет.
The courier brought one parcel and handed it over at nine.
❌ Ово правило однесе на све запослене.
Incorrect lexical substitution — ‘apply to’ is imperfective reflexive односити се на.
✅ Ово правило се односи на све запослене.
This rule applies to all employees.
❌ Донео сам њему га после ручка.
Incorrect neutral pronoun pattern — dative and accusative clitics form ти/му га in the second-position cluster.
✅ Донео сам му га после ручка.
I brought it to him after lunch. (male speaker)
Key Takeaways
- До- presents arrival toward the relevant goal; од- presents removal away from the relevant point.
- Within each direction, доносити/односити are imperfective and донети/однети perfective.
- Memorize the irregular chains донети — донесем — донео — донеси — донећу and the parallel однети forms.
- Objects are accusative; recipients are dative; destinations and sources retain their own prepositional cases.
- Use довести/одвести for accompanied people, and keep lexical односити се на separate from physical removal.
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Start learning Serbian →Related Topics
- Carrying and Bringing (nositi, voziti, voditi)B1 — Verbs of conveying people and things.
- Prefixed Directional Motion VerbsB1 — doci, otici, uci, izaci and their direction-encoding prefixes.
- Aspect, Prefixes, and Directional VerbsB2 — How prefixes build directional motion families and secondary imperfectives.
- Dative: The Indirect ObjectA2 — The recipient/beneficiary role — 'to/for someone'.
- The Order Within the Clitic ClusterB1 — The fixed sequence: li > aux > dat > acc/gen > se > je.