The Infinitive

The Serbian infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb: радити (work), писати (write), доћи (come). It does not mark person, tense, gender, or number. That makes it useful as a citation form and after another verb, but it also means that an infinitive cannot independently say who performs its action.

Most infinitives end in written -ти; another important group ends in -ћи. The heading’s Latin-script shorthand -ti/-ci must not obscure the spelling: Serbian Latin has -ti/-ći, with ć, and Cyrillic has -ти/-ћи.

Recognizing the Citation Form

Forms in -сти still end in the broader -ти spelling pattern, but their other stems are often less transparent: јести — једем, пасти — паднем, срести — сретнем. Likewise, доћи — дођем shows why simply removing -ћи cannot produce a usable present stem.

The first sentence coordinates two infinitives after modal моћи. The second is an impersonal public-notice pattern: no person performs пушити inside the grammar of the sentence, even though the rule applies to people generally.

The Infinitive Does Not Predict Every Other Form

English learners often expect a regular operation like removing to. Serbian verbs have multiple stems, and sound changes may separate the infinitive from the present.

There is no honest shortcut that derives кажем and рекао from рећи for a beginner. Learn principal forms for irregular and stem-changing verbs. The present-stem guide explains what the patterns do predict.

After Modals and Other Same-Subject Verbs

An infinitive commonly complements modal verbs such as моћи (can), морати (must), and смети (be allowed/dare), and verbs such as желети (want), почети (begin), and наставити (continue). In these examples, the finite verb identifies the subject and the infinitive shares it.

The infinitives remain остати, оставити, разговарати regardless of the subject. Person—and, where relevant, gender—appears in the finite expression: могу, смемо, желела бих.

Some predicates have their own preferred complement patterns and meanings. There is no universal rule that every English to + verb becomes a Serbian infinitive. Learn the governing predicate together with a natural complement.

Infinitive versus да + Present

Contemporary standard Serbian has two productive patterns when both verbs share a subject:

Both are grammatical. Да + present is extremely frequent in everyday Serbian, while the infinitive remains standard and common in many speakers’ usage, in writing, and in compact instructions. Distribution varies with predicate, style, region, and individual speaker; declaring either construction universally wrong misrepresents Serbian.

The two patterns stop being interchangeable when the lower action has a different expressed subject. A finite да-clause can mark that person; an infinitive cannot.

English can use an object-like noun plus an infinitive, I want Petar to come. Serbian uses да Петар дође. Желим Петар доћи is not standard Serbian syntax.

The Infinitive in Future I

Future I combines the short forms of хтети—ћу, ћеш, ће, ћемо, ћете, ће—with an infinitive. With the auxiliary first, the words remain separate.

When an infinitive in -ти precedes the auxiliary, final -ти is removed and the two parts are written as one word in standard Serbian spelling: писати + ћу → писаћу, позвати + ћеш → позваћеш.

Infinitives in -ћи behave differently: the infinitive stays whole and the auxiliary remains separate.

Thus стићи ћемо and доћи ћу are correct, while fused стићићемо and доћићу are not. In Serbian Latin, the corresponding patterns are pisaću, but stići ćemo and doći ću. The marks on ć are letters, not optional pronunciation aids.

Everyday Serbian also has future ћу да + present, as in После састанка ћу да позовем Јелену. It is common, especially in speech. The infinitive construction is the clearest starting point for learning future-I morphology; see Future I for syntax and register.

Aspect Is Already Present in the Infinitive

An infinitive is tenseless, but it is not aspectless. Compare imperfective читати (read/be reading) with perfective прочитати (read through).

The first presents reading as an activity and habit. The second makes completion necessary before another bounded event. English often leaves that contrast to context or an adverb; Serbian frequently lexicalizes it in the verb itself.

Impersonal Instructions and Compact Style

The infinitive appears in signs, recipes, labels, and administrative instructions, where naming a subject is unnecessary. This compact style is neutral to formal, depending on the document.

These are not informal commands missing a person ending. They are conventional impersonal directives. In conversation, a personal imperative such as Добро протреси боцу (Shake the bottle well) directly addresses someone.

Practice Tasks

Task 1: Same Subject or Different Subject?

Complete one sentence in which you must leave and another in which Ana must leave.

Task 2: Form Future I

Put писати and доћи before the first-person auxiliary.

Common Mistakes

Using Latin c for Serbian ћ

Treating the infinitive as if it marked a subject

Declaring да + present ungrammatical

Fusing future I after -ћи

Expecting the present stem to equal the visible infinitive stem

Key Takeaways

• The infinitive is an uninflected citation form, most often in -ти or -ћи.
• Its shape does not always reveal the present stem; learn principal forms for stem-changing verbs.
• With a shared subject, both an infinitive and да + present can be standard complements.
• A different expressed subject requires a finite clause: Желим да Ана дође.
• Future I fuses after -ти when the verb comes first (писаћу) but remains separate after -ћи (доћи ћу).
• Aspect belongs to the infinitive itself: читати and прочитати organize the event differently.