Grammar
One rule, explained
The lesson opens with the theory and checks it with a quiz. Here is the beginning, and 3 of its 16 questions.
A2 · Full personal pronouns: mene, tebe, njega
At A1 you learned the short pronoun objects: Vidim ga (I see him), Dajem ti knjigu (I give you the book). Those short words are clitics — they have no stress of their own, they hide in second position, and they cannot carry any weight. But every pronoun also has a full form, a word you can lean on: mene, tebe, njega, njoj, nama. Serbian uses the full form in exactly four situations, and in each of them the short form is simply impossible.
When the full form is required
- After a preposition. za mene (for me), kod njega (at his place), sa tobom (with you), o njoj (about her). A clitic can never follow a preposition: za me does not exist.
- For emphasis or contrast. Ne zovem njega, zovem tebe. (I'm not calling HIM, I'm calling YOU.) When the point of the sentence is who, the pronoun takes the full form.
- As a one-word answer. Tebe. (You.) A clitic cannot stand alone, so the answer to "who?" is always the full form.
- At the start of a sentence. Nama je dosadno bez tebe. (WE are bored without you.) Clitics cannot open a sentence; a full form can.
Everywhere else — an ordinary, unstressed object — the clitic stays the default. Vidim ga is the normal way to say "I see him"; Vidim njega means "I see HIM (and not someone else)".
The forms
The full forms cover three groups of cases. The genitive and accusative share one form (except for she, which keeps two), the dative and locative share one form, and the instrumental has its own. In the plural the dative, locative and instrumental are all the same word.
| person | clitic (acc / dat) | genitive = accusative | dative = locative | instrumental |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ja (I) | me / mi | mene | meni | mnom |
| ti (you) | te / ti | tebe | tebi | tobom |
| on (he) | ga / mu | njega | njemu | njim |
| ona (she) | je / joj | nje (gen.), nju (acc.) | njoj | njom |
| mi (we) | nas / nam | nas | nama | nama |
| vi (you pl.) | vas / vam | vas | vama | vama |
| oni (they) | ih / im | njih | njima | njima |
In the plural the full genitive-accusative looks like the clitic: nas, vas. The difference is only stress and position — Vidim vas (clitic, unstressed) against Ovo je za vas (full, after a preposition). Write the same letters, but know which one you are using.
Quick check · 3 / 16
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