Word order and information structure

In English, word order tells you who did what: The police arrested the thief and The thief arrested the police are two different events. Serbian does not need order for that job, because the case endings already say it. In Policija je uhapsila lopova the ending -a on lopova marks the thief as the one arrested, wherever he stands. So Lopova je uhapsila policija reports exactly the same arrest.

Because the endings keep the roles clear, word order is free to do a different job: it tells the listener what is already known and what is the news. Both sentences above are correct. They answer different questions.

The principle: known first, new last

A Serbian sentence normally starts from something the listener already has in mind - the topic of the conversation, something just mentioned - and ends on the new information. The last position is the stress position: whatever you put there is heard as the point of the sentence. This is the single idea behind every order in this lesson.

• Start with what links to the previous sentence or to the question.
• Put the news - the part you want the listener to take away - at the end.
• If the subject is the news, it can move to the end, after the verb.
• If the object is already known, it can move to the front.

Neutral and marked order

Subject - verb - object (Vlada je usvojila novi zakon) is the neutral order: it is what you say when nothing in particular is known yet, as at the very start of a news item. Any other order is marked: it is not wrong and not rare, it simply tells the listener that some part of the sentence is already known or especially important. No order is forbidden; each one makes a different point.

Subject after the verb

News reports constantly put the subject after the verb, especially with verbs of happening, arriving and starting: Juče je počeo štrajk (A strike started yesterday). The time or place comes first as a frame, and the event or the person closes the sentence as the news. English often needs there is or a passive to do this; Serbian just moves the subject.

The adverbial: frame at the front, news at the end

Phrases of time, place and reason (juče, u ponedeljak, zbog nesreće) follow the same principle. At the front they set the scene; at the end they are the information being asked for. Štrajk je počeo juče answers When did the strike start?; Juče je počeo štrajk answers What happened yesterday?

The verb at the end

When both the subject and the object are already known, the only new thing left is the action itself, and the verb moves to the end: Predsednik je sporazum potpisao - the agreement everyone was talking about, he did sign it. This order often carries a note of confirmation or contrast, and words like ipak (after all) and zaista (really) fit it well.

Clitics do not move with the rest. je, su, se, ga, mu and the other clitics stay in second position, in the fixed order you learned, whatever you put first: Lopova JE uhapsila policija, Juče JE počeo štrajk, Požar SU ugasili za dva sata. Rearrange the stressed words; leave the clitic cluster where it always is.

Do not translate English order one to one. An English passive like The law was adopted by the parliament is usually just Zakon je usvojila skupština in Serbian: object first, subject last, ordinary active verb. And when you answer a question, start from the words of the question and finish with the answer: Ko je pobedio na izborima? - Na izborima je pobedila opozicija.