You can already say what you want and what you can do: hoću ("I want") and mogu ("I can") from the lesson "hteti & moći". But what happens when a second verb joins in: not just "I want" but "I want to sleep", not just "I can" but "I can help"? English reaches for the infinitive without a second thought: "to sleep", "help". Serbian, especially in Serbia, usually takes another road: the small word da plus a personal form of the verb, one that shows who is acting: hoću da spavam, mogu da pomognem. Word for word, "I want that I sleep", "I can that I help". You have met this pattern in "Infinitive & stems" and "hteti & moći"; here we put it together.
This da-construction is one of the most frequent and most typically Serbian patterns in the language. Wishes, plans, polite requests and offers like "let's…" rest on it. This lesson shows how it is built, which verbs take it, what became of the infinitive (it is alive and well), and the traps it sets for an English speaker, above all the pattern "I want you to…".
How the da-construction works
The pattern is simple: main verb + da + verb in the present tense. You already conjugate the present (the lesson "Present tense"), so your da-construction is almost ready. Watch the same second verb line up behind different "commanders":
Notice: in all four sentences the second verb is radim, "I work", first person singular, exactly like its commander. Only the main verb changes: wish (hoću), ability (mogu), liking or habit (volim), need (moram). The verb moram ("I must, I have to") belongs to the same family as hoću and mogu, which the lesson "Core modal verbs" assembles in full, with its conjugation and meanings; for now take moram da… as a ready-made formula, "I have to…". And where English switches between "to work" and a bare "work" (I want to work, but I can work), Serbian keeps one pattern for all four.
When both verbs are about the same person, they are conjugated as a pair, for the same person. Here is "want to work" in every person, where radim dutifully follows hoću:
The two verbs march in step: hoćemo da radimo says "we" twice over, where English marks the person only once. That is how the da-construction works when the doer is the same. What happens when someone else does the action? That is where the main trap lies, and that is where we go next.
The "I want you to…" trap: whose verb is it?
Now the main danger. English says "I want you to work": the other person appears as an object, "you", and the second verb stays an infinitive. Serbian does nothing of the kind. It uses the same da as before, and the verb after it is conjugated for its own subject. Compare two sentences that differ by a single letter:
Cheat sheet
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da-construction = da + verb in the present tense where English has an infinitive: hoću da radim ("I want to work", literally "I want that I work"). The verb after da is a full personal form: conjugated for its own subject.
Pattern: main verb + da + present
Same doer: both verbs in the same person.
Someone else acts: "I want you to…"
Verbs that call for da
Rule of thumb: where English has an infinitive after a verb, Serbian can almost always have da + present. Either aspect can follow da: volim da čitam (“I like reading”) vs hoću da pročitam (“I want to read it through”); Mogu da pomognem. “I can help.” Also: Idem da kupim hleb. (purpose: “I’m going out to buy bread”), Hajde da počnemo. (“Let’s start”), Nemoj da brineš. (“Don’t worry”).
The infinitive is alive
Dictionary form (raditi), the future (radiću), and after modals: a little more bookish, more frequent further west.
Clitics straight after da
The short me, te, ga, mi, se sit right behind da, before the verb; dative mi (“to me”) before accusative ga (“it”).
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