Breakdown of Prestanite da pričate.
da
that
pričati
to talk or tell stories
prestati
to stop doing something
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Questions & Answers about Prestanite da pričate.
What form is prestanite?
Prestanite is the imperative form of prestati and it is used for second person plural.
That means it can be used:
- to speak to more than one person: you all, stop...
- to speak to one person formally: sir/ma’am, stop...
The informal singular version would be prestani.
Why are there two verbs in this sentence?
This is a very common Serbian pattern:
prestati + da + present tense
It means to stop doing something.
So:
- prestanite = stop
- da pričate = talking / that you are talking
A very literal breakdown would be something like Stop that you talk, even though that is not natural English.
Why does Serbian use da pričate here instead of an infinitive?
In modern Serbian, da + present tense is extremely common, and after many verbs it is the normal or most natural choice.
So Prestanite da pričate is very natural Serbian.
You may also see:
- Prestanite pričati
That is also understandable and grammatical, but in Serbian the da + present structure is often more everyday and more typical.
Why is it pričate and not pričajte?