Breakdown of Punjač je u kancelariji; zaboravila si ga juče na stolu.
biti
to be
u
in
kancelarija
office
juče
yesterday
Questions & Answers about Punjač je u kancelariji; zaboravila si ga juče na stolu.
Why is it zaboravila si and not just zaboravila or si zaboravila?
This is the past tense in Serbian.
It is made with:
- the l-participle: zaboravila
- the auxiliary verb biti in the present: si
So zaboravila si = you forgot
Why this order? In Serbian, short unstressed words like si usually go in the second position of the clause. That is why zaboravila si ga sounds natural here.
Also, zaboravila shows that the person being addressed is female.
If you were speaking to a man, it would be:
- zaboravio si ga
You can sometimes hear different word orders in speech, but zaboravila si is the standard natural pattern here.
Why does zaboravila end in -la?
Because it agrees with the gender of the person being addressed.
In Serbian past tense, the participle changes for gender:
- zaboravio = a man forgot
- zaboravila = a woman forgot
- zaboravilo = it forgot
So zaboravila si means you (female) forgot.
This is very different from English, where the verb does not change depending on whether the person is male or female.