Ne mogu da slušam muziku glasno, jer to smeta komšinici.

I cannot listen to music loudly, because that bothers the female neighbor.

Breakdown of Ne mogu da slušam muziku glasno, jer to smeta komšinici.

• to: that
• ne: not
• moći: can
• jer: because

Questions & Answers about Ne mogu da slušam muziku glasno, jer to smeta komšinici.

What does da mean here? I thought da meant yes.

In Serbian, da can have more than one job.

Here it does not mean yes. In ne mogu da slušam, it introduces the second verb and works like to or that in English-style explanations.

So:

• ne mogu da slušam = I can’t listen
• literally, something like I can’t that-I-listen, but in natural English we just say I can’t listen

This is a very common Serbian structure.

Why is it ne mogu da slušam instead of using an infinitive?

Modern Serbian very often uses:

• modal verb + da + present tense

So after mogu, the natural pattern is:

• mogu da slušam
• mogu da radim
• mogu da dođem

An infinitive is possible in some contexts and styles, but in everyday Serbian, da + present is much more common than what an English speaker might expect.

Why is the verb slušam here?

Slušam is the 1st person singular present form of slušati:

• ja slušam = I listen / I am listening