Ako ništa ne razumeš, pročitaj poruku još jednom.

not

Breakdown of Ako ništa ne razumeš, pročitaj poruku još jednom.

• razumeti: to understand
• ako: if
• poruka: message

Questions & Answers about Ako ništa ne razumeš, pročitaj poruku još jednom.

Why does the sentence start with ako?

Ako means if. It introduces a condition:

• Ako ništa ne razumeš = If you don’t understand anything
• pročitaj poruku još jednom = read the message once again

So the whole sentence has the structure If X, then do Y.

Why is it ništa ne razumeš instead of just ništa razumeš?

Because Serbian normally uses negative concord. That means words like ništa (nothing / anything in negative sentences) go together with a negative verb.

So Serbian says:

• ništa ne razumeš = literally you understand nothing not
• natural English: you don’t understand anything

This is completely normal in Serbian. Similar patterns are:

• Nikoga ne vidim. = I don’t see anybody.
• Nikad ne dolazi. = He/She never comes.

So after ništa, you should expect ne with the verb.

Does ništa mean nothing or anything here?

In this sentence, the natural English translation is anything because the whole clause is negative:

• =