Kralj priča sa svima sem mene.

The king is talking with everyone except me.

Breakdown of Kralj priča sa svima sem mene.

• meni: me
• sa: with
• sav: all
• kralj: a king

Questions & Answers about Kralj priča sa svima sem mene.

Why is it svima and not svi?

Because sa requires the instrumental case, and svima is the form used here.

• svi = all / everyone in the basic dictionary form
• sa svima = with everyone

So in this sentence:

• Kralj = subject
• priča = verb
• sa svima = with everyone

Even though svima can also match other cases in other contexts, here it is instrumental because it follows sa.

Why is it mene after sem?

Because sem normally takes the genitive case.

So:

• ja = I
• mene = genitive/accusative form of ja

In this sentence, sem mene means except me.

This is very common with words like:

• sem mene
• osim mene

Also, after a preposition or a word like sem, Serbian uses the full stressed pronoun form, not a short clitic form. So you say mene, not me.

Is sem the same as osim?