Bare adverbial instrumental
In short
| Job | Bare instrumental | English |
|---|---|---|
| time span (plural) | danima, satima, godinama | for days / hours / years |
| route | obalom, ulicom, putem | along the bank, down the street, by the road |
| manner | tihim glasom, brzim korakom | quietly, at a quick pace |
| means | vozom, karticom | by train, by card |
| distribution | hiljadama, jatima, redom | in thousands, in flocks, in turn |
No preposition. s + instrumental = company, never route or manner.
B2 · Lesson 16 · Priloški instrumental bez predloga
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
You already know the instrumental in two roles. With s / sa it means company: Šetam sa sestrom (I walk with my sister). Without a preposition it names the tool or vehicle: Pišem olovkom, Idem autobusom. This lesson shows that the bare instrumental, with no preposition at all, does several more everyday jobs: it says how long something dragged on, which way you went, how something was done, and in what numbers people or things came.
| Question it answers | Job | Example forms | English |
|---|---|---|---|
| How long (for ages)? | time span | danima, satima, godinama | for days, for hours, for years |
| Which way? | route | obalom, ulicom, autoputem | along the bank, down the street, on the motorway |
| How? | manner | tihim glasom, brzim korakom | in a quiet voice, at a quick pace |
| By what means? | means / tool | vozom, čamcem, karticom | by train, by boat, by card |
| In what numbers / order? | distribution | stotinama, hiljadama, jatima, redom | in their hundreds, in thousands, in flocks, one after another |
1. A stretch of time: the plural that drags on
Put a time word in the instrumental plural and it means a long, uncounted stretch — "for days on end", "for years". The speaker is not counting; they are saying it felt long. The endings are the A2 plural ones: -ima for masculine words and for feminine words ending in a consonant (noć → noćima), -ama for feminine words in -a.
| Word | Instrumental plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| sat (hour) | satima | for hours |
| dan (day) | danima | for days |
| noć (night) | noćima | night after night |
| nedelja (week) | nedeljama | for weeks |
| mesec (month) | mesecima | for months |
| godina (year) | godinama | for years |
Compare the bare accusative you learned for duration: Čekali smo dva sata gives an exact length. Čekali smo satima gives no number and stresses that it went on and on.
2. The route: the road itself goes in the instrumental
Where English says along, down, by or via, Serbian simply puts the road, street, bank or path in the instrumental: Šetali smo obalom (we walked along the bank), Idite ovom ulicom (go down this street), Vozili smo se autoputem (we drove on the motorway). The noun is the way you travel, not where you end up. Note put (road, way): its instrumental is putem — Idite ovim putem.
Keep it apart from two prepositions you know: po gradu (po + locative) means wandering around all over the town, and kroz šumu (kroz + accusative) means going through something. The bare instrumental means following a line: Išli smo stazom kroz šumu — we took the path through the forest.
3. Manner: how it was done
The bare instrumental also says how: Govorio je tihim glasom (he spoke in a quiet voice), Hodala je brzim korakom (she walked at a quick pace), Vozio je velikom brzinom (he drove at high speed). Here the noun nearly always has an adjective with it, which agrees in the instrumental: a bare glasom on its own sounds unfinished.
4. Means: the anchor you already have
Vehicles and tools are not new: vozom, čamcem, karticom. They are listed here because they are the same pattern — and because they show best why the preposition matters (see the trap below).
5. Distribution: in what numbers, in what order
A number noun or a group noun in the instrumental plural says people or things came in great numbers or in groups: Turisti dolaze hiljadama (tourists come in their thousands), Ptice su letele jatima (the birds flew in flocks), Ljudi su dolazili stotinama (people came in their hundreds). The singular redom means one after another, in turn: Ulazite redom!
The trap: adding s changes the meaning to company
| Bare instrumental | With s / sa | Difference |
|---|---|---|
| Šetali smo obalom. | Šetali smo s prijateljem. | along the bank / with a friend |
| Putujem vozom. | Putujem s bratom. | by train / together with my brother |
| Govorio je tihim glasom. | Govorio je s profesorom. | in a quiet voice / with the professor |
Never put s in front of a route, a time span, a manner or a vehicle. S vozom would mean the train is your companion. Ask yourself: is this a person or thing that keeps me company? Only then use s / sa.
Check what you read
6 of the 17 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Hodali smo(dan) po planinama.
Nije me zvala(godina).
Čekali smo ___ i niko nije došao.
What does "Čekali smo satima" say that "Čekali smo dva sata" does not?
Idite ovom(ulica) do trga.
Vratili smo se kući istim ___.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Danima je padala kiša.
It rained for days.
Govorio je tihim glasom.
He spoke in a quiet voice.
Šetali smo obalom reke.
We walked along the river bank.
Leti turisti dolaze hiljadama.
In summer tourists come in their thousands.
Zimi vukovi idu čoporima.
In winter wolves go about in packs.
Karavani su mesecima putovali pustinjom.
Caravans travelled across the desert for months.
Noćima nije mogla da spava.
Night after night she couldn't sleep.
Putovali smo vozom do Niša.
We travelled to Niš by train.
Kroz klisuru smo išli sporim korakom.
We went through the gorge at a slow pace.
Satima smo čekali skelu na pristaništu.
We waited for the ferry at the landing for hours.
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 114
Try it yourself
Translate a sentence that uses this rule. The check marks the word that went wrong and names the rule behind it, as in the app.
Sentences
Write it in Serbian
It rained for days.