Corrective, consecutive and correlative conjunctions

Two everyday jobs need small linking words that English does with but, so, both ... and, neither ... nor and either ... or. The first is putting someone right: not tomorrow, but the day after. The second is laying out a pair: both of them, neither of them, one or the other. Serbian has a word for each, and they are not always the ones you would guess from English.

1. Not this, but that: nego and već

When the first part of a sentence says what is not true and the second part replaces it with what is true, Serbian uses nego or već. The two mean exactly the same here, and you can pick either one.

You already know ali (but). Ali keeps both parts true: Skupo je, ali je lepo — it is expensive, but (still) nice. nego and već throw the first idea away and put another in its place. So after a negation that you are correcting, never use ali.

Test it in English: if you can say not X — instead, Y, use nego or već. If you mean X, however Y and both stay true, use ali. And remember već has a second life as the adverb already (Već sam jeo — I have already eaten); in a correction it comes right after the comma. nego after a comparative (veći nego ja, bigger than me) is the comparison you learned in A2 — a different job.

2. And so, and then: pa and te

pa joins two clauses when the second one follows from the first or simply comes next: and so, and then. It is extremely common in speech.

• Zakasnio sam na autobus, pa sam išao peške. — I missed the bus, so I walked.
• Pozvala sam ga, pa smo napravili plan. — I called him, and then we made a plan.

te does the same job in written and formal Serbian — news reports, official letters. You need to recognise it; in conversation you will say pa.

• Sastanak je otkazan, te smo ostali kod kuće. — The meeting was cancelled, so we stayed at home.

3. Pairs: i ... i, ni ... ni, ili ... ili, niti ... niti

When you want to stress that a statement covers both members of a pair, neither of them, or one or the other, Serbian repeats the conjunction in front of each member.

ni ... ni keeps the ne on the verb. English says Neither Ana nor Marko is coming with no not, and learners copy that. Serbian works like niko and ništa: the verb must still be negated — Ni Ana ni Marko ne dolaze. Leaving out ne is the classic mistake.

niti ... niti is the other neither ... nor. Here the conjunction carries the negation on its own, so the verbs after it have no ne: Niti me je zvao, niti mi je pisao — he neither called me nor wrote to me. It usually joins two whole clauses. Recognise it and use it when you want that emphatic rhythm; for two people or things, ni ... ni with ne is the everyday choice.

4. Which form does the verb take?

When the pair is the subject, the conjunction decides whether the verb is singular or plural.

With i ... i and ni ... ni, if ja is one of the members the verb takes the mi form (volimo); with ti and someone else, the vi form. With ili ... ili only one person will actually act, so the verb looks at the member standing closest to it.