Smanjili smo trošak.

to be

Breakdown of Smanjili smo trošak.

• trošak: a cost; expense
• smanjiti: to reduce; decrease

Questions & Answers about Smanjili smo trošak.

Why is it smanjili smo, and not just one word for we reduced?

Because Serbian forms this past tense with two parts:

• smanjili = the past participle of smanjiti
• smo = we are, used here as the auxiliary have-type element in the past tense

Together, smanjili smo means we reduced.

This is the Serbian perfect tense, which is the normal way to talk about past actions:

• smanjili smo = we reduced / we have reduced

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What is the base form of smanjili?

The dictionary form is smanjiti, which means to reduce / to decrease / to lower.

So:

• smanjiti = infinitive
• smanjili smo = we reduced

Also, smanjiti is a perfective verb, so it usually suggests a completed action with a result.

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Why does smanjili end in -li?

That ending shows agreement with the subject in number and sometimes gender.

Here, smanjili is the masculine plural form. With mi (), Serbian often uses: