Locative prepositions

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Locative prepositions: where, about what, around what

The locative case is built so that it never appears on its own: it lives only after a preposition. You know its forms from “Locative forms”, where you also met the key pair “rest versus motion” (u gradu, in the city, but u grad, into the city). This lesson gathers the five main locative prepositions and takes each one apart: u, na, o, po, pri.

Most of the five map neatly onto English. The real work of the lesson is English at (at school, at work, at the airport), which Serbian splits between u and na.

The five main prepositions: u, na, o, po, pri

First, the overall map. Each preposition with its basic meaning and an example in the locative:

Notice: u, na and pri answer “where?”, o answers “about what?”, and po answers “where all over? by what?”. They have one thing in common: the word after them is in the locative. There are no new endings to learn. For nouns the locative is spelt like the dative (-u, -i, and the plural -ima/-ama), so if you can build the dative (gradu, školi, moru), you can already build the locative. Personal pronouns have no short forms here (no mi, ti, mu), only the full ones: o meni (about me), o tebi, o njemu. All that is left is to choose the right preposition and not to mix up “where?” with “where to?”.

u or na: a building or an open place

The pair u/na is the main fork in the locative road. The basic rule is simple: u means “inside” (u kući, in the house), na means “on a surface” (na stolu, on the table). So far English in and on match. But na also takes many places where you are not on any surface: work, a class, the market, university. English says at or even in there:

The na list is worth learning by heart: na fakultetu (at university), na poslu (at work), na času (in class), na predavanju (at a lecture), na stanici (at the station, at the stop), na pijaci (at the market), na moru (at the seaside), na selu (in the countryside), na ulici (in the street), na koncertu (at a concert), na utakmici (at a match), na sastanku (at a meeting). There is a logic behind this list: na goes with open spaces (market, street, seaside, station) and with activities and events (work, class, lecture, concert, match), while u goes with enclosed buildings and rooms.

Keep the town and the village apart too: u gradu, but na selu. Here na selu is the village as a way of life, “in the country”. About one particular village Serbian also says u selu, “in the village”, as in “Locative forms”.

Živim u gradu, a roditelji žive na selu. I live in town, and my parents live in the country.

Cheat sheet

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Locative prepositions: where, about what, around what

The locative never appears on its own, only after a preposition. For nouns it is spelt like the dative (-u, -i, plural -ima/-ama); pronouns have only their full forms: o meni, o tebi. It has five main prepositions.

The five main prepositions: u, na, o, po, pri

u or na: a building or an open place

Learn the na list: na fakultetu (at university), na poslu (at work), na času (in class), na predavanju (at a lecture), na stanici (at the station, at the stop), na pijaci (at the market), na moru (at the seaside), na selu (in the countryside), na ulici (in the street), na koncertu (at a concert), na utakmici (at a match), na sastanku (at a meeting). Town and village: u gradu, but na selu; one particular village, also u selu.

English “at” gives no clue

At the post office: u pošti or na pošti, both correct.

Topic, space, circumstance: o, po, pri

• po here takes the locative; for nouns it looks like the dative anyway.
• Don’t confuse it with po + accusative “go and get”: idem po hleb, I’m going to get bread.
• u/na also separate rest from motion: u gradu (where) vs u grad (where to).