Expressions of duration
In short
| Meaning | Form | Verb | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| for (how long) | bare acc. | imperfective | Radio sam osam sati. |
| the whole … | ceo dan / celu noć / celo leto | imperfective | Spavali smo celu noć. |
| in (time to finish) | za + acc. | perfective | Napisao je pismo za sat vremena. |
| have been … for | već + acc. + present | imperfective | Već tri godine živim ovde. |
| questions | Koliko dugo? / Za koliko vremena? |
Feminine -a → -u: nedelju, godinu. English for is never za.
B1 · Lesson 21 · Izražavanje trajanja: akuzativ i za + akuzativ
The full explanation, from the lesson that teaches this rule
English uses two different little words to talk about time spans: for two hours (how long something went on) and in two hours (how long it took to get something done). Serbian makes the same distinction, and it does it with the case you already know from direct objects: the accusative.
How long it went on: the bare accusative
To say how long an activity lasted, put the time phrase in the accusative with no preposition at all. There is no word for English for: Radio sam osam sati. — I worked (for) eight hours. Most time words look the same in the accusative as in the nominative; only feminine nouns in -a change -a to -u.
| Nominative | Accusative (duration) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| minut | minut | (for) a minute |
| sat | sat / sat vremena | (for) an hour |
| dan | dan | (for) a day |
| nedelja | nedelju / nedelju dana | (for) a week |
| mesec | mesec / mesec dana | (for) a month |
| godina | godinu / godinu dana | (for) a year |
| noć | noć | (for) a night |
Serbian likes to add a measuring word to a single unit: sat vremena (an hour's time), nedelju dana, mesec dana, godinu dana (a week's, month's, year's worth of days). Only the first word is in the accusative; vremena and dana never change. Čekala sam te sat vremena and Čekala sam te sat mean the same; the longer one is more common in speech.
The whole of a period: ceo, cela, celo
The whole day, all night, all summer work exactly the same way: a bare accusative, with ceo (whole) agreeing with the noun.
| Gender | Accusative | Example |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | ceo dan, ceo mesec | Padala je kiša ceo dan. |
| feminine | celu noć, celu nedelju, celu godinu | Spavali smo celu noć. |
| neuter | celo leto, celo jutro | Celo leto sam radila u hotelu. |
How long it took to finish: za + accusative
When the point is that something got finished, and you say how much time the finishing needed, put za in front of the same accusative phrase: Završio je izveštaj za dva dana. — He finished the report in two days.
The key: aspect decides
You already know that verbs come in pairs: an imperfective for an activity in progress and a perfective for a completed whole. The two time expressions follow the same split.
| Question | Form | Verb | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| How long did it go on? | bare accusative | imperfective | Pisao je pismo sat vremena. (He was writing the letter for an hour.) |
| How long did it take to finish? | za + accusative | perfective | Napisao je pismo za sat vremena. (He wrote the letter in an hour.) |
Do not translate English for with za. Radio sam za osam sati is wrong for 'I worked for eight hours' — the bare accusative Radio sam osam sati is the only form. Ask yourself: am I measuring an activity (no preposition, imperfective) or the time a result needed (za, perfective)?
Already going on: već + accusative + present
English says I have been living here for three years. Serbian puts već (already) before the bare accusative and uses the present tense, because the situation is still going on: Već tri godine živim u Beogradu. Using the past tense here would mean you no longer live there.
Asking the question
| Question | Asks about | Typical answer |
|---|---|---|
| Koliko dugo? | how long something lasts or lasted | Tri sata. / Celu noć. |
| Koliko dugo već ...? | how long something has been going on | Već dve godine. |
| Za koliko vremena? | how long finishing takes or took | Za dva dana. |
Koliko dugo ste živeli u Nemačkoj? — How long did you live in Germany? Za koliko vremena si napisao ovo? — How long did it take you to write this?
Keep these apart from the genitive time words you met earlier: tokom leta is 'during the summer' and pre dva dana is 'two days ago' — they place an event in time, while the accusative measures how long it lasted.
Check what you read
6 of the 15 questions this lesson asks in the app. Type the form or pick the answer.
Sastanak je trajao ___.
Čekali smo ___ na šalteru.
Bili smo na moru(nedelja) dana.
Završila je projekat ___.
Spavala sam(ceo) noć.
Deca su se igrala(ceo) leto.
Examples from the course
The marked word is where the rule applies. Press play to hear the sentence.
Radio sam osam sati.
I worked for eight hours. (man speaking)
Spavali smo celu noć.
We slept all night. (a group including a man)
Tunel su gradili celu deceniju.
They were building the tunnel for a whole decade.
Padala je kiša ceo dan.
It rained all day.
Čekala sam te sat vremena.
I waited for you for an hour. (woman speaking)
Pisao je pismo sat vremena.
He was writing the letter for an hour.
Pripremila je prezentaciju za jedno popodne.
She prepared the presentation in one afternoon.
Celo tromesečje smo radili na istraživanju.
We worked on the research the whole quarter. (a group including a man)
Komšija je celu nedelju renovirao kupatilo.
The neighbour was renovating his bathroom all week.
Celo leto sam radila u hotelu.
I worked in a hotel all summer. (woman speaking)
Sentences in the course that use this rule: 123
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
I worked for eight hours. (man speaking)