Conditional I

Lesson opening

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Conditional I: the Serbian “would” that conjugates

Ja bih radio “I would work”, mi bismo radili “we would work”, vi biste radili “you would work”. English builds its conditional with one little word that never changes: whoever the subject is, it is always would. Serbian works much the same way, a small helper word next to a verb form (the l-participle you know from the perfect), with one big difference: the Serbian helper changes with the person. Bih, bismo, biste are not typos; the helper conjugates.

This form is called Conditional I (kondicional I, also potencijal), and it is an everyday workhorse. You use it to ask politely (hteo bih kafu “I’d like a coffee”), to imagine and to give advice (šta bi ti uradio? “what would you do?”), and to recall past habits (nedeljom bismo išli na pijacu “on Sundays we would go to the market”). Conveniently, English would does all three of these jobs too. You already know how to build the l-participle (see “The l-participle”), so you hold half of the construction; what is left is four forms of the helper and their place in the sentence.

All the persons: four forms of the helper

There are six persons but only four different forms to learn, and in three of the six persons the form is simply bi. Take the verb raditi “to work”:

Only three forms really stand out: bih (1st person singular), bismo (1st person plural) and biste (2nd person plural). Everything else is bi. The participle radio/radila/radili is built just as in the perfect. With the polite Vi it ends in -li even when you speak to one woman: Gospođo, da li biste mogli da sačekate? “Madam, could you wait, please?”. The -le form (radile) is only for a group of women (see “The l-participle”).

Its place in the sentence: the helper comes second

Like other clitics, bih and bi take second place: the participle, the subject or some other word comes first, and the helper slips in right after it.

If the sentence opens with the participle, bih comes straight after it: Radio bih. If a subject or an adverb comes first, the helper follows it: Ja bih, Rado bih. Either way it is the second item: Ja bih hteo kafu or Hteo bih kafu “I’d like a coffee”, never “Ja hteo bih kafu”.

Cheat sheet

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Conditional I: the Serbian “would” that conjugates

Conditional I (kondicional I, also potencijal) = the helper forms + the l-participle. The participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

Paradigm: four helper forms

Learn bih (I), bismo (we), biste (you plural or polite); the rest is bi. Polite Vi takes -li, even to one woman. Negation: ne bih, ne bi, ne bismo.

Word order: the helper comes second

The participle, subject or an adverb goes first: Ja bih hteo kafu / Hteo bih kafu. Questions: Da li bi…? or Bi li…?. Clitic order: li — helper — dative — accusative — se.

Three jobs

Condition and purpose

• If-clause with kad: the helper in both halves (English: “if I had”, no would) — Kad bih imao vremena, putovao bih. Šta bismo radili bez tebe?
• Purpose: da bih “so that I”, da bismo “so that we” — Došao sam da bih ti pomogao. Everyday: da + present, Došao sam da ti pomognem.