Mislim da je ovo najbolji restoran u gradu.

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Breakdown of Mislim da je ovo najbolji restoran u gradu.

• biti: to be
• grad: city
• u: in

Questions & Answers about Mislim da je ovo najbolji restoran u gradu.

Why is there no separate word for I in Mislim?

Because Serbian verbs usually show the subject by their ending.

• mislim = I think
• The ending -m already tells you the subject is I

So Serbian often drops subject pronouns when they are clear from the verb. You could say Ja mislim, but that usually adds emphasis, like I think.

What does da mean here?

Here da means that.

So:

• Mislim = I think
• da je ovo najbolji restoran u gradu = that this is the best restaurant in town / in the city

In Serbian, da is very commonly used to introduce a clause after verbs like think, know, say, hope, and so on.

Why is je before ovo? Why not da ovo je?

Because je is a clitic, and clitics in Serbian usually go in the second position of their clause.

In the clause:

• da je ovo najbolji restoran u gradu

the word je cannot just stay wherever English is would go. Serbian places it very early, after the clause-introducing word da.

So da je ovo... is natural, while da ovo je... is not.

This is one of the most important word-order patterns in Serbian.