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.
B2 · Jotovanje: sliveni suglasnici
By now you have met plenty of forms that seem to have the wrong consonant: mlađi comes from mlad, rođen from roditi, pišem from pisati, vođenje from voditi. So far you learned them one by one. They are not irregular at all — they are all the result of one single sound change, and once you see it, you can walk back from almost any of these forms to the word you already know.
What happens
Many Serbian endings begin with a j sound: the comparative -ji, the old -jen of the passive participle and the verbal noun, the possessive -ji, and the -je- of some present tenses. Serbian does not like a consonant sitting right before that j. Instead of saying mlad-ji, the d and the j melt together into one new, 'softer' consonant: đ — mlađi. The j disappears, and the consonant changes. This melting is called jotation (jotovanje).
| Consonant + j | Becomes | Example |
|---|---|---|
| t + j | ć | ljut → ljući, platiti → plaćati |
| d + j | đ | mlad → mlađi, roditi → rođenje |
| s + j | š | nositi → nošenje, pisati → pišem |
| z + j | ž | kazati → kažem, nizak → niži |
| k + j, c + j | č | jak → jači, ptica → ptičji |
| g + j | ž | drag → draži, lagati → lažem |
| h + j | š | tih → tiši |
| st + j | šć or št | gust → gušći, oprostiti → opraštati |
| p, b, v, m + j | plj, blj, vlj, mlj (an l is slipped in) | skup → skuplji, riba → riblji |
| l + j, n + j | lj, nj | crn → crnji |
The six places you meet it
| Where | Base word | Jotated form |
|---|---|---|
| Comparative of an adjective | mlad, jak, skup, tih, gust | mlađi, jači, skuplji, tiši, gušći |
| Verbal noun | voditi, nositi, praviti, gubiti | vođenje, nošenje, pravljenje, gubljenje |
| Passive participle | roditi, iznenaditi | rođen, iznenađen |
| Present tense of some a-verbs | pisati, kazati, plakati, lagati | pišem, kažem, plačem, lažem |
| Imperfective partner of a verb | vratiti, platiti, zaboraviti, oprostiti | vraćati, plaćati, zaboravljati, opraštati |
| Possessive adjective in -ji (from animals) | vuk, riba, krava, medved | vučji, riblji, kravlji, medveđi |
In the present tense this happens to a group of a-verbs whose present is built with -je-: you say pisati but pišem, pišeš, piše; plakati but plačem, plačeš, plače. The whole present keeps the soft consonant; the infinitive and the past (pisao, plakao) do not.
Quick check · 2 / 16
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