Questions with da li and li

In English you turn a statement into a question by moving the verb: This is Serbia becomes Is this Serbia? Serbian does not rebuild the sentence like that. It adds a little question marker, and there are two ways to do it.

Way one: da li in front

Take the statement and put da li at the very front. One small thing shifts with it: the little verb form (je, su, si, and the rest) hops up to sit right after da li. Those forms always want second place in the sentence, and da li has just taken first place. Everything else keeps the order it had.

This way always works, with any verb, in any person. If you remember only one thing from this lesson, remember da li.

Way two: li right after the verb

The second way drops da and puts li directly after the verb, which moves to the front of the sentence. This is what people say most of the time, so you will hear it constantly.

There is one thing to watch. The verb biti has a short form (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) and a long form (jesam, jesi, jeste, jesmo, jeste, jesu). In front of li you need the long form — except in the third person singular, where the short je is used.

The third person singular is the odd one out: say je li, not jeste li on. And je li is the single commonest question shape in the language — Je li ovo Beograd? Je li srpski težak? Learn it as one block.

Both ways mean exactly the same thing. Da li je ovo Srbija? and Je li ovo Srbija? are the same question, and you may answer either one the same way.

Answering: yes and no

Da is yes and ne is no. On their own they are already a complete answer. But Serbian usually adds the verb — and here again the affirmative answer takes the long form, never the short one.

In the short answer for on / ona / ono the yes-form is jeste, not je: Je li ovo Srbija? — Da, jeste. The short je is too small to stand alone.

The negative answers are the negative forms of biti you already know: nisam, nisi, nije, nismo, niste, nisu. Nothing new to learn there — you only have to pick the right person.