Nedostaje mi novac.

money

Breakdown of Nedostaje mi novac.

• mi: me
• nedostajati: to be missing; lack

Questions & Answers about Nedostaje mi novac.

Why is it mi and not ja?

Because mi is the dative form of ja.

With nedostajati, Serbian usually uses this pattern:

• something
  • nedostaje
    • someone in the dative

So in Nedostaje mi novac, the idea is structurally closer to:

• Money is lacking to me

That is why Serbian uses mi rather than ja.

Some dative forms of personal pronouns are:

• mi = to me
• ti = to you
• mu / joj = to him / to her
• nam / vam / im = to us / to you (plural/formal) / to them

Why is the verb nedostaje and not nedostajem?

Because the verb agrees with novac, not with mi.

In this sentence, novac is the grammatical subject, and novac is singular. So the verb must also be singular:

• novac nedostaje

The word mi is just the indirect object in the dative case, so it does not control the verb form.

Compare:

• Nedostaje mi novac. = singular subject
• Nedostaju mi pare. = plural subject

In the second sentence, pare is plural, so the verb becomes nedostaju.

What case is novac here?