Melvin's Serbo Croatian

As you've learned in the previous lesson, an adjective is any word used to describe another word, for example: Big, fat, strong, timid, silly etc...

Nouns are thing words, they can either be people, places or things: Cat, America, David, sorrow, hamburger... ; Verbs are actions: to knit, do dance, to fight, to love, to run... ; Adjectives are description words: Red, big, ugly, sad, quick, fat, powerful...

Almost all feminine nouns end in -a: Riba, mačka, papuča, boca...

Almost all nouns that end in -e, -o are neuter: dijete, sunce, auto

Almost all nouns that end in a consonant (a letter that isnt a, e, i, o, u) are masculine: konj, čovjek, put...

In a male noun, if the 'a' is sandwitched between two consonants, it is moved to the end of the word while the consonants are left behind, depending on the context the a changes form (psa, psu, psi, pse) examples: magarac - magarc.., pas - ps.., vrabac - vrapc..

na also refers to places of activity, like the countryside, beach, cafe, trip, work etc

još = still

Još uvijek - still (giga)

if an action is being done to 'ja' it changes to 'me' just like how 'I' changes to 'me' in english: I am eating food - Ja jedem hranu; Food is eating me - Hrana me jede

To say Ana is watching TV, you say Ana gleda TV, but to say Ana ISNT watching TV, you just put 'ne' before the verb: Ne trebam kafu - I don't need coffee

To express destinations, you put 'u' in front of the word and change the word into accusative: Idem u Hrvatsku - I'm going to Croatia, Ideš u bolnicu - You're going to the hospital, Idem u Zagreb - I'm going to zagreb

Opet - again, Opet and ponovo are the same.

In English you have certain words that require a subject (The thing in a sentence the action is being done to) because without it, the sentence is left ambiguous. If you were to just say 'Ana is holding', the sentence would sound weird because it doesn't nearly have enough information, What is Ana holding? You cant hold nothing so there needs to be a subject. In Serbo-Croatian there are significantly more verbs that require a subject: brijati (shave), buditi (awaken), oblačiti (put on clothes), prati (wash)...

see?

rijetko - rarely

Oblačiti se - to dress

If the person or thing in the sentence is doing an action that requires a subject, then the particle 'se' is used, it means 'self' and isn't pronoun specific (myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, yourselves, themselves)

In some words that end with -ati, the a turns into an i, for example: trčati = trči (to run) ležati = leži (to lie down)

Here - Ovamo You can also specify location with directional words

vi - vas (accusative)

Gendered accusatives also apply to "moj"; in this instance, -og is added to "moj" somewhere in there... (note: there is also a distinction between animacy.) (note2: you can use mojeg instead of mog but its rare)

Even action words and adjectives themselves can be described, and when they are, its always neuter

Male nouns that end in -e or -o are treated as if they end in a consonant, with 'j' placed before the ending; Dario - Darij.., Mario - Marij.., Silvio - Silvij..

The simplest sentences are like "Ana is sleeping" or "Samir is running", you form them by trimming the -ti from the action word, turning it from the general form into the pure form example : kuhati - kuha (to cook) pjevati - pjeva (to sing)

In the accusative case, the words that the action is done to have their endings changed, in this instance, the book is being read, so to mark that this action is being done to the book, it changes from knjiga to knigu

Sidenote: idk why its brz and not brzo, ive looked it up to no avail

When colors are dark, you add 'tamno-' before them: tamnoplavo (dark blue), tamnozeleno (dark green), tamnosmeđe (dark brown)...

oko - at around...

tačno - exactly...

(num) i pol = (num):30

buditi se - to wake up

Any word that ends in -o or -e is neuter

You can also combine color sets, with the second adjective of the color combo being the one that gets changed according to gender; "crni-bjeli televizor" would be incorrect

Danas - Today

Hladno je danas (also correct)

vrlo - very (formal jako - very (less formal)

I'll be marking the gender of a word if its an exception from now on

Some adjectives have a slightly different masculine form, an 'a' gets sandwiched between the two final letters, while in the feminine and neuter form, the 'a' is deleted: dobr- = dobar (good), hladn- = hladan (cold), prazn- = prazan (empty)...

Serbo-Croatian has gendered word, Riba is female because ends with -a, every noun that ends in -a is but there are a few exceptions

"Kuda" can also be used

You can often omit the pronoun but you always have to place the "to be" AFTER the action word (but this word order can change)

You still have to apply gender to adjectives even when referring to yourself

When referring to an all female group, add -e to the adjective; gladne (hungry), glupe (stupid), velike (big), male (little)

When refering to multiple people or someone formally, you add -i to the adjective; Gladni (hungry), glupi (stupid), veliki (big), mali (little)

Notice that film doesn't change in the accusative case. Every noun that ends in a consonant is masculine, therefore, like neuter nouns, they do not change in the accusative case, except when they refer to people or animals, some examples of male nouns: brod - ship, film - movie, kruh - bread, ručak - lunch/dinner, sok - juice, voz/vlak - train

You can combine some unique words with ne, including: Još + ne = not yet, Više + ne = not anymore

možda - maybe

uopće - not... at all you can also say uopšte instead

To make a general statement (its cold, its late, its hot, its fun), you just add your adverb (description word) and then the word 'to be', literally translated: "cold is"

As you've noticed, it's a bit confusing to know when to put na or u, just consider that you put 'na' for NOT LITERAL PLACES, and you put 'u' for LITERAL PLACES, Not true places: (concert, dinner, football, meeting, movie premiere,) True places: (concert hall, restaurant, playground, meeting room, cinema)

na is also used for all destinations that are generally surfaces, like the roof, table, wall etc

"na" this time because the roof is a flat surface, so you would be on it

If you're going to a mountain or island you use 'na' instead, even if its the name of the mountain/island; Idem na Plješavicu

To make the 'we' form, you just add -o to the pure form

"na" is mostly used if the place name isn't literal (a beach is a broad term for any beach) if its a flat surface, if its a place of activity or if its a mountain

'krv' is female, consider it an exception, yet the adjective still takes an -u

Imati - to have

In english you will at most have one negation in a sentence, in Serbo Croatian however, an entire sentence is negated, like in this example; nikad - ne radi - ništa

Svaki dan - every day

sigurno - surely / for sure

Brat - brother, notice that in the accusative case, brat turns into brata; This is because if a noun refers to PEOPLE or ANIMALS, you attach -a to it in the accusative, examples: brat - brata (bro), čovjek - čovjeka (human), konj - konja (horse), sin - sina (son)

Izgedati - to look (a certain way)

Ja sam - I am

You can use 'jako' to intensify some events but be careful, its not always used the same as 'vrlo'

This works the same even if the words are irregular Jedem - im eating Pišem - im writing

If you want to put an adjective before a noun in accusative, you also gotta make the adjective accusative, and it's quite simple, just add a -u to the adjective, just how you add -u to the noun itself

NEVER SAY PICA

Previous rule also applies to masculine names. Melvin would be Melvina

When - kada/kad, also use "u" before specifying when something will take place, equivalent translation would be "at"

If you wanna ask more generic questions that don't refer to the state of anything specific, you use 'kako'

ti - you

vi - formal / plural

If you wanna ask about the weather, you should use 'Kakvo'

koga - who (accusative)

New useful word: moj (mine), it changes depending on gender of whatever it possesses: moj konj, moje auto, moja jabuka

Kuda - where to (You can also use gdje and kamo, it means the same thing)

In order to get action words for the pronoun I, you just add -m to the pure form Čitam - Im reading Kuham - Im cooking Učim - Im learning

All words that end in -a have their ending changed to -u : baka - baku, riba - ribu, televizija - televiziju, tata - tatu,

Šareno - multicolored, colorful, vibrant...

Note: some adjectives always have an -i attached to them before a male noun, like this one

Some adjectives need an -i when they are next to the masculine word they describe

If going to a real place, add "u" and then add -u to the place name (if its feminine)

Btw even though something is technically being done to the subject you don't change it to accusative, this is because its taking the role of the action doer

in the accusative, 'ti' turns into 'te' just like how 'ja' turns into 'me'

Moje - moj (neuter)

kao - like / as

više + ne = not anymore; The word order is flexible, it can also be: Više ne pijem kafu

Light colors have '-svijetlo' attached to them: svijetlorozo (light pink), svijetlocrveno (light red), svijetlonarandžasto (light orange)

Nemati - to not have

The verb imati is a bit special, it gets fused with ne when its negative, instead: nema, nemam, nemaš

To make a negation, just add -ni before the 'biti'

Nikad and nikada are the same, both are correct

to make "not be" constructions, just add 'ni-' before "to be" - Nisam - I'm not, Nisi - You're not, Nije - He/she/it is not

Ps: "not be" comes before

Noć is an exception, despite having a masculine ending, its feminine, so the description word has a feminine ending

Obično - usually

When describing a neuter word, some adjectives get an -e instead of an -o, but there's a pretty effective rule to know when to add -e, and thats when the adjective ends with a non english letter (š, đ, č, ć, ž): vruć- = vruće (hot), loš - loše (bad)...

Čovjek - man (also can mean person) Muškarac - man (male exclusively)

There are other 'irregular' forms but you'll get used to them, they all almost always end with -e plakati - plače (to cry) pisati - piše (to write) piti - pije (to drink)

prvi put - first time

stalno - all the time

već - already

In the words that in their dictionary form end in -jeti (vidjeti like in the previous example) the -jeti always changes into -i; Vidjeti - vidi, voljeti - voli (to love)

vjerovatno - probably

Add the ending -a to masculine words that describe living creatures in accusative

Čitati He reads is the same as he is reading, this applies to all words

on/ono - ga (accusative); Note: ga applies for both male and neuter

Because nouns have gender in Serbo-Croatian, you still have to refer to them by their respective pronoun, a bottle would be a "she" a table would be a "he" and the sun would be an "it"

Btw you use the pure form for pronouns also, not just names, like uh on/ona/ono instead of Samir, Ana, dijete... same as English

"se" specifies that the person doing the action is doing it to themselves

vraćati se - to return

Uvijek - always

vidjeti - vidi (to see)

Ovdje and tu mostly mean the same thing

Očito - obviously

Padati - to fall, literally: "snow is falling"

As you already know, words that end in -a are changed to -u in the accusative (kafa - kafu, tata - tatu), however there are general nouns that end in -o or -e that NEVER change in the accusative: auto - car, meso - meat, mlijeko - milk, more - sea, voće - fruit

Yes, plava does mean blue; Yes, plava also means blonde; Yes, I know it's stupid.

Ponekad - sometimes

moj - moju (feminine accusative); just add -u again lol

After tomorrow - prekosutra

The prefix -pre means 'too (much)', prevruće - too hot, prehladno - too cold, premračno - too dark

If something is being done to the word in a sentence without anything or anyone doing it being mentioned, then you also use 'se'. Literally translated the example sentence would be 'The window opens itself'

If noun is masculine, add nothing to adjective

Puhati - to blow

Pre- - too (much): preskupo (too expensive), preveliko (too big), prebrzo (too small)...

When the noun is male, nothing is attached to the description word

You can intensify adjectives with words like: jako, dosta, zbilja... But you cant change them according to the gender of the noun, cause they don't intensify the NOUN they intensify the DESCRIPTION WORD

Description words must be changed to the gender of the word they describe, in this sentence, since the word 'velik-' describes that the fish is big, an -a is added to it

if noun female, add -a to adjective

Sad - now

Skoro - almost

Skoro - almost

skoro - almost, in this context its combined with nikad to express almost never

Skoro se nikad ne brijem (also correct)

Sljedeće godine - Next year

sljedeći mjesec - next month

Smijati se - to laugh

it doesn't always make sense

potpuno - completely

When the noun is neuter, an -o is attached to the description word

if noun neuter, add -o to adjective

Kuhati se - to cook (the soup is cooking itself)

the soup is cooking itself, literally

Sutra - tomorrow You can talk about the future tense while still using the present by just putting time related expressions

Any word that ends in a consonant (a letter that isn't A E I O U) is masculine, but there are a few exceptions

Despite ending in -a, tata refers to a male figure, therefore its masculine

Note that the verb is still negated in this sentence, there is a ne before it even when there is nikad, this is a feature of bosnian grammar similar to turkish, literally translated: You never don't watch TV

Uopće - at all

Uskoro - soon

Užasno/strašno - terrible (in this context)

There is a distinction between male and female roles, most often the rule to making a role female is to add -ica to the male form: Glumac (actor) - Glumica (actress), profesor - profesorica, student - studentica, učitelj - učiteljica (teacher)

For male nouns, the adjective gets -og in the accusative

Certain words are gendered in a way that doesn't match the letter they end with, there are around 100 of them and they are mostly male sounding nouns that are actually female: krv (blood), noć (night), kost (bone) etc...

Animate MALE nouns (living things) get an '-a' in the accusative: Konja, dinosaura, čovjeka... Also, sometimes you will see -eg instead of -og like in the previous example sentence (If its one of those adjectives that end in -e when describing a neuter noun)

Inanimate nouns such as: wall, bottle, table, window get the '-i' ending, but animate nouns like: horse, dog, human, dinosaur, ghost, robot, worm all get '-og'

"Zid", despite being masculine, is not living, so you don't add -a to it

Jako - strong / very

This sentence might seem weird because literally translated it would be "tall is", but considering that there is a male description word, you can guess that there is a male person or object being discussed, so a more complete translation would be closer to "(he)tall is"

Previous rule also applies to both female and neuter words

yup

To express that something will happen at a certain time, you use "u" and then a number for the hour

već - in a brief time, tek - in a long time; (not literal translation)

To specify where a train/bus/airplane is going to, you use "za" + the destination

For neuter accusative adjectives, dont add anything

zabavljati se - to entertain

Zvati se - to be named

It also applies to both the name and the last name

Čekam Ivana - I'm waiting for Ivan, Čekam Ivanu - I'm waiting for Ivana

When talking to someone FORMALY or when talking to MULTIPLE PEOPLE, you add -te instead of -š: pjevate, čekate, vidite...

Reminder: To say sentences like "you cook" or "you dance" you add -š; kuhaš, plešeš...

Često - often

ona - ju; you can also use 'je' instead of 'ju', both are acceptable; Pay attention, book is feminine so you use "her" when refering to it, same applies to male and neuter

The accusative is applied even when answering a question

For the 'You' form, you just add -š to the root word/pure form