Word
Film je bio sjajan.
Meaning
The movie was excellent.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Film je bio sjajan.
Why are there two words for was in je bio?
Because Serbian forms the past tense with two parts:
- je = the present-tense auxiliary is
- bio = the past participle been / was
Together, je bio means was.
This is the normal Serbian perfect tense:
- Film je bio sjajan. = The film was great.
You will see the same pattern a lot:
- On je radio. = He worked / was working.
- Ona je došla. = She came.
Why is it bio and not some other form?
Bio agrees with the noun it refers to.
Here, film is:
- masculine
- singular
So the participle is bio.
Compare:
- Film je bio sjajan. = masculine singular
- Knjiga je bila sjajna. = feminine singular
- Dete je bilo sjajno. = neuter singular
- Filmovi su bili sjajni. = plural
So bio is used because film is a masculine singular noun.
Why is it sjajan and not sjajno or sjajna?