Da li biste doneli fotografije večeras?

do

Breakdown of Da li biste doneli fotografije večeras?

• večeras: tonight
• doneti: to bring
• fotografija: photograph

Questions & Answers about Da li biste doneli fotografije večeras?

What does da li mean here?

Da li is a very common way to turn a statement into a yes/no question in Serbian.

So:

• Biste doneli fotografije večeras. = You would bring the photographs tonight.
• Da li biste doneli fotografije večeras? = Would you bring the photographs tonight?

It does not translate word-for-word neatly into English. Its job is mainly grammatical: it marks the sentence as a question.

A very common alternative is:

• Biste li doneli fotografije večeras?

That means the same thing and often sounds a bit smoother or more natural in polite requests.

Why is biste used?

Biste is the 2nd person plural form of the auxiliary used in the conditional.

In this sentence, it helps create the meaning would:

• ja bih = I would
• ti bi = you would
• on/ona/ono bi = he/she/it would
• mi bismo = we would
• vi biste = you would
• oni/one/ona bi = they would

So biste corresponds to you would.

In Serbian, vi can mean:

• you all / you plural
• you as a formal/polite singular

So biste works for both: