Beba spava.

to sleep

Breakdown of Beba spava.

• beba: a baby

Questions & Answers about Beba spava.

Why isn’t there a word for is in this sentence?

Serbian does not normally use a separate to be + -ing structure the way English does in is sleeping.

Instead, it simply uses the present tense of the main verb:

• spavati = to sleep
• spava = sleeps / is sleeping

So Beba spava. is literally something like Baby sleeps, but in natural English it is often understood as The baby is sleeping.

What form is spava?

Spava is the 3rd person singular present tense form of the verb spavati (to sleep).

It matches subjects like:

• on spava = he is sleeping / sleeps
• ona spava = she is sleeping / sleeps
• ono spava = it is sleeping / sleeps
• beba spava = the baby is sleeping / sleeps

In the present tense, Serbian does not change the verb for gender in the 3rd person singular.

Is beba in the nominative case here?

Yes. Beba is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative singular.

Dictionary form:

• beba = baby

Since it is the one doing the action of sleeping, nominative is exactly what you would expect here.