Conditional with bih and the past participle

In English, one small word turns a blunt statement into a polite one: I want coffee becomes I would like coffee, and Help me becomes Would you help me? Serbian does the same with one small change to the verb — and you already know most of it.

The past tense you know, with a new helper

Look at the past tense from A1: Pio sam kafu ("I drank coffee"). It has two parts — the little helper sam and the participle pio, which changes for gender and number (pio, pila, pili...). The conditional keeps the participle exactly as it is and swaps the helper for a new set: Pio bih kafu ("I would drink coffee"). That is the whole rule. The participle tells you who did what; the helper tells you whether it happened (sam) or would happen (bih).

Notice that three of the six are the same short bi: for you (singular), for he/she/it and for they. In those rows the participle does the work of telling you who is meant — Pio bi is one man, Pila bi a woman, Pili bi a group. The other three helpers are unmistakable: bih is always I, bismo always we, biste always you (plural or polite).

Where the helper goes

bih, bi, bismo, biste are clitics — unstressed little words — and they sit exactly where sam, si, je sit in the past tense: in second position, right after the first stressed word or phrase of the clause. So the participle can come first (Pio bih kafu), or a pronoun or another word can come first and push the helper into second place: Ja bih pio kafu, Rado bih pio kafu. Nothing about the position is new; it is the second-position rule from A1 applied to a new helper.

In a question with da li, the helper comes straight after da li, and the participle follows: Da li biste hteli kafu? ("Would you like coffee?"). In a li question it is the helper itself that opens the sentence — here it is stressed — then li, then the participle: Biste li hteli kafu? Both are common; the da li form is the safer one to start with.

Being polite: the three verbs you will use most

The conditional is the mood of politeness in Serbian, and three verbs carry most of it:

• hteti — Hteo bih čaj ("I would like tea"). Literally "I would want", but it is the ordinary polite way to order or ask for something. A woman says Htela bih čaj.
• moći — Da li biste mogli da mi pomognete? ("Could you help me?"). Literally "would you be able to" — the standard polite request.
• voleti — Voleo bih da dođeš ("I would love you to come", literally "I would like that you come"). Used for wishes.

After hteo bih, mogao bih and voleo bih the next verb comes as da plus the present tense, exactly as with the modal verbs you know: Hteo bih da spavam, Mogli bismo da idemo. The infinitive is also possible (Hteo bih spavati), but da plus present is what you will hear most.

Negative and reinforcing adverbs

To say what you would not do, put ne directly in front of the helper: Ne bih pio kafu ("I would not drink coffee"), Ne bismo išli ("We would not go"). Ne is stressed, so it can open the sentence and the helper leans on it. Two adverbs make the conditional warmer: rado ("gladly") — Rado bih došao ("I would gladly come"), and možda ("maybe") — Možda bismo mogli sutra ("Maybe we could tomorrow").

In everyday speech you will hear bi used for every person — Mi bi išli u grad, Ja bi hteo. You need to recognise it, but do not copy it: the standard forms are bih, bismo, biste, so the careful versions are Mi bismo išli u grad and Ja bih hteo. When you mean I, say bih; when you mean we, say bismo.

Watch the trap in the second person: bi is singular you and biste is plural or polite you. When you address a stranger, a waiter or an older person, that is the polite form: Da li biste hteli...?, never Da li bi hteo...?