Personal pronouns (nominative)

Lesson opening

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

Personal pronouns: who is doing it

You have met these little words many times already: Kako si? hides a ti ("you", to a friend), Kako ste? hides a vi ("you", polite), and a Serb introducing themselves says Ja sam…, "I am…". Now it is time to gather all the personal pronouns into one set and, above all, to understand a Serbian habit that surprises every English speaker: most of the time these pronouns are left out altogether.

The set itself is small. What takes getting used to is how it is used: English needs its I and you in every sentence, while Serbian usually does without them and keeps them for contrast and emphasis. So this lesson is less about memorising than about unlearning one English reflex.

The whole set

Ten cells of a table, and you have the whole nominative system. One feature has no match in English at all: in the third person plural Serbian distinguishes gender.

The singular holds no surprises: ja, ti, on, ona, ono, "I, you, he, she, it". In the plural, though, the third person splits into three forms by gender: oni is "they" for men or a mixed group, one is "they" for women, and ona is "they" for neuter things. English has one "they" for everybody; Serbian has three. Watch out, too, for a trap for the eye: ona means both "she" (singular) and "they" (neuter plural). The verb and the context tell you which one is meant.

The main rule: the pronoun is usually left out

In neutral Serbian speech the subject pronoun is usually not said at all, because the ending of the verb already shows the person. The form radim on its own means "I work": the "I" is audible in the ending -m. The form radiš means "you work". Adding ja or ti is unnecessary.

None of the three sentences has a pronoun, and this is normal, complete Serbian, not a clipped telegram style. So when does the pronoun appear? When it carries emphasis: in a contrast, when it matters exactly who, or in a quick reply. In English you would do this with your voice: "I'm working, you're asleep". In Serbian the pronoun itself is the stress.

The pronoun turns up where there is a contrast, "I, but you", "she, but he", or where one person has to be singled out. A frequent partner in such contrasts is the conjunction a, "and, while, whereas": ja…, a ti…. Don't mistake it for the English article: Serbian has no articles at all, and this a is a small word that joins two contrasting halves.

Cheat sheet

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Personal pronouns: who is doing it

A personal pronoun names a participant instead of their name. Nominative = the subject form, answers "who?".

The whole set

• "They" has three forms: oni men or a mixed group (one man is enough), one women, ona neuter things: Marko i Ana? Oni uče srpski. Ana i Maja? One rade zajedno.
• Trap: ona = "she" and "they" (neuter plural).
• Sound: ja "yah", mi "mee", one "O-neh" (not English one).

Usually dropped

The verb ending carries the person: -m I, -š you, -mo we. Radim = I work / I'm working, a full sentence: Učim srpski. (I'm learning Serbian), Govoriš brzo. (you speak fast), Radimo zajedno. (we work together). The short forms sam, si, je, smo, ste, su never come first: without ja, Student sam. (I’m a student), Marko sam. (I’m Marko).

Said for emphasis

ti and vi

ti: "you" to one friend. vi: "you" to a group, and the polite "you" to one stranger, older person or official. Same sound; in a letter the polite one takes a capital, even mid-sentence: Hvala, Vi ste ljubazni. (thank you, you are kind); vi for a group stays lower case.

on, ona, ono for things too

Chosen by the noun's Serbian gender, never by English "it":

Usually dropped for things too: Gde je kafa? — Tu je. (where's the coffee? it's here)