Ja jedem hleb.

bread

Breakdown of Ja jedem hleb.

• ja: I
• jesti: to eat

Questions & Answers about Ja jedem hleb.

Why is ja included? Doesn’t jedem already mean I eat?

Yes. In Serbian, the verb ending often already tells you the subject, so jedem by itself means I eat / I am eating.

That means Ja jedem hleb. and Jedem hleb. are both correct.

Including ja usually adds emphasis, contrast, or clarity, for example:

• Ja jedem hleb, a on jede meso. = I’m eating bread, and he’s eating meat.

So in many everyday situations, ja can be omitted.

What form of the verb is jedem?

Jedem is the 1st person singular present tense of jesti = to eat.

So:

• ja jedem = I eat
• ti jedeš = you eat
• on/ona/ono jede = he/she/it eats
• mi jedemo = we eat
• vi jedete = you (plural/formal) eat
• oni/one/ona jedu = they eat

Why is the infinitive jesti, but the form is jedem and not something more regular-looking?