Negative and privative prefixes

English can turn a word into its opposite with a small piece at the front: happy → unhappy, possible → impossible, hope → hopeless. Serbian does the same thing with three prefixes, and in every case the prefix is written together with the word as one word: srećan (happy) → nesrećan (unhappy).

ne- in front of a noun

Put ne- in front of a noun and you get its opposite or its absence. The new noun keeps the gender and the endings of the original noun.

ne- in front of an adjective

This is the most common use: ne- + adjective = the opposite quality. The adjective still agrees with its noun exactly as before (nesrećan čovek, nesrećna žena, nesrećno dete).

bez- : without something

bez is the preposition 'without'. As a prefix it builds adjectives that mean 'having no ...', like English -less: bez nade (without hope) → beznadežan (hopeless). Before a voiceless consonant (p, t, k, c, s, f, h) the z turns into s, and the spelling follows the sound: bes-. Before č, ć, š it goes one step further, to beš- (bez šuma → bešuman, silent), but such words are rare.

Spell it the way you hear it: besplatan, beskoristan, bespomoćan — but bezvredan, bezbedan, beznadežan. Writing bezplatan is a spelling mistake.

protiv- and anti- : against something

protiv means 'against'. As a prefix it builds words meaning 'against the law, against fire' and so on: protivzakonit (illegal), protivpožarni (fire-prevention). The international anti- does the same job, mostly in newer and technical words: antivirusni program, antiratni protest.

Adverbs from these adjectives

Every adjective here gives an adverb the usual way, with the neuter ending -o: nepravedan → nepravedno (unfairly), besplatan → besplatno (for free), beskoristan → beskorisno (uselessly), protivzakonit → protivzakonito (illegally). The prefix stays attached.

One word or two?

The trap is that the ne of a verb stays a separate word: ne znam, nije srećan, nisam zadovoljan. Only when ne- sits inside a noun, an adjective or an adverb is it glued on. So both of these are correct, and they are slightly different:

• On nije srećan. — He is not happy. (the verb je is negated: separate)
• On je nesrećan. — He is unhappy. (a new adjective: one word)

Rule of thumb: if you can remove ne and still have a verb, write it apart (ne radi, nije moguće). If removing it leaves an adjective, noun or adverb, write it together (nemoguće, nered, netačno).