Indefinite pronouns and adverbs with ne-

Something is missing from your bag, somebody was standing by the door, you left your keys somewhere — and you cannot say who, what or where. Serbian builds all of these from the question words you already know. Put ne- in front of ko, šta, gde or kad and you get "someone", "something", "somewhere", "sometime".

This is the whole rule. The last lesson gave you the ni- column; this one gives you the ne- column, and the two work as one system. Only the meaning differs: neko says a person is involved, niko says no person is. Both nekad and nekada are correct and mean the same thing, exactly like kad and kada.

The verb stays positive

The big difference from lesson 31 is what happens to the verb. A ni- word forces ne onto the verb (Niko ne zna — nobody knows). A ne- word does not: the sentence is an ordinary positive one. Neko zna — someone knows. Nešto nedostaje — something is missing. If you catch yourself putting ne on the verb after neko, you have switched columns.

neko and nešto change case like ko and šta

Neko is a person, so it follows ko; nešto is a thing, so it follows šta. The endings are the ones you saw on niko and ništa. Negde and nekad are adverbs and never change.

Because neko is animate, its accusative is the genitive form — Video sam nekoga — while the thing nešto keeps its nominative shape as the object: Izgubio sam nešto. This is the same animate rule you know from nouns. After a verb that takes the genitive, nešto becomes nečega: Sećam se nečega — I remember something. With an instrument it is nečim: Udario ga je nečim teškim — he hit him with something heavy.

A preposition does not split a ne- word

In lesson 31 a preposition wedged itself into the negative word: ni s kim, ni o čemu. The ne- words are not broken up. The preposition simply stands in front: s nekim (with someone), o nečemu (about something), od nekoga (from someone).

English uses "anyone / anything / anywhere" in questions and after if: "Did anyone see it?", "If you find anything…". Serbian uses the ne- words here — Da li je neko video?, Ako nešto nađeš… Do not reach for niko or ništa just because English says "any": those make the sentence negative.

In a story, nekad often stands next to nikad and uvek as "sometimes" or "once upon a time": Nekad sam ovde radio — I once worked here. Negde answers where when you do not know: Ključevi su negde u stanu — the keys are somewhere in the flat.