English points in two directions: “this” for what is near, “that” for what is not. Where English has two demonstratives, Serbian has three: ovaj (this, here by me), taj (that, there by you) and onaj (that over there, away from both of us). This is one of the places where the two languages do not line up, so get used to it early.
The logic is simple: the Serbian set is tied to the people in a conversation. ovaj is “my zone”, whatever is next to me, the speaker. taj is “your zone”, whatever is next to the person I am talking to, or whatever we have just been talking about. onaj is the “third zone”, far from both of us, over there. English “that” lumps “yours” and “far away” together; Serbian keeps them apart. If you know Spanish, you have met this system already: este, ese, aquel divide the world in much the same way.
Three rows, three genders
In the nominative (the dictionary case, the case of the subject) each row gives three gender forms and three plural forms, just like an adjective:
Look closely at the middle row: taj, ta, to. The same to is the one in the everywhere-phrase To je… (“That is…”, “It is…”). And some forms coincide with personal pronouns you already know: ti is also “you”, ona is also “she”, ono is also “it”, and oni/one/ona are also “they”. Context always tells them apart.
How they decline
Demonstratives take the same endings as adjectives in the lesson “Adjective declension”: ovog like novog, ovom like novom. The letter in brackets is optional: ovog and ovoga, ovom and ovome are both correct. Here is the ov- row in the other cases:
The t- and on- rows behave the same way: tog(a), tom(e), tim; te, toj, tu, tom; tih, tim(a), and onog(a), onom(e), onim; one, onoj, onu, onom; onih, onim(a). The feminine tu (tu knjigu, “that book”) is spelt like the adverb tu, “here, there”. In the masculine accusative a demonstrative, like an adjective, marks living things (the lesson “Animacy”): onaj autobus, but onog psa (“that dog”).
The neuter as a pointing finger
The neuter forms ovo, to, ono (“this”, “that”, “that over there”) lead a life of their own. You use them to point at something before you have named it and given it a gender: “What’s this?”, “This is my sister.” The most frequent of them is to, Serbian’s default “this/that/it”.
Cheat sheet
The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.
Three distances where English has two (like Spanish este / ese / aquel): ovaj by the speaker (“this”), taj by the listener or already mentioned (“that”), onaj far from both (“that over there”). They agree in gender, number and case and take adjective endings.
Nominative: three rows, three genders
The neuter as a pointing finger
Same three roots: kind, size, place, “here it is”
taj “the one we mentioned” and set phrases
🍪No advertising cookies — only the essential storage that keeps you signed in and saves your progress. Privacy Policy