Basic punctuation

Lesson opening

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

Punctuation: the Serbian comma, quotation marks and full stops

You already use capital letters the Serbian way; now for punctuation. The good news first: if you write careful English, Serbian commas will feel familiar, because both languages place the comma by meaning. Serbian calls this logička interpunkcija, “logical punctuation”. Its opposite is formal punctuation, the German kind, where a comma goes wherever a grammatical signal appears (a new clause, a “that”, a “who”). Serbian punctuation is logical at its core: the comma follows the sense, not a label.

In practice there is no automatic comma before koji (“who, which”), da (“that”) or što (“that, what”). The real surprises lie elsewhere: in lists, in quotation marks that open at the bottom of the line, and in numbers, where the comma and the full stop swap jobs.

Marks that end a sentence

Nothing changes here from English. tačka (full stop, “.”) ends a statement; upitnik (question mark, “?”) a question; uzvičnik (exclamation mark, “!”) an exclamation or a call; tri tačke (“three dots”, “…”) a sentence that breaks off. Punctuation itself is interpunkcija.

The comma: where Serbian puts one

Serbian uses the comma (zapeta) with confidence in a few clear cases:

• Addressing someone: the name is always marked off, Ana, dođi! (“Ana, come here!”), Hvala, gospodine. (“Thank you, sir.”), as in the lesson “Direct address”.
• Lists: commas between the items, but not before the final i (“and”): Kupujem hleb, mleko, sir i jaja.
• Parenthetical words: naravno (“of course”), međutim (“however”), na primer (“for example”): On je, naravno, u pravu.
• Contrast: before a (“and, whereas”) and ali (“but”), as in English: Skupo je, ali je dobro. (“It’s expensive, but it’s good.”)
• A “when” part first: a part that starts with kad (“when”) or a similar word and opens the sentence is followed by a comma, Kad dođeš, javi se. (“When you get here, let me know.”) When the same part comes at the end, there is usually no comma: Javi se kad dođeš.

And where does Serbian leave the comma out? Before a restrictive clause, one the sentence needs to make sense. Čovek koji radi ovde je moj brat. “The man who works here is my brother” has no commas, because koji radi ovde tells you which man is meant. English punctuates it the same way; German would add two commas. When the koji part only adds information about someone already clear, it is marked off with commas, again as in English: Moj brat, koji živi u Nišu, dolazi sutra. (“My brother, who lives in Niš, is coming tomorrow”: there is only one brother.) All the commas between clauses come in “Commas in clauses”, restrictive and non-restrictive clauses in “Relative clauses”; for now, the principle is enough.

Cheat sheet

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Punctuation: the Serbian comma, quotation marks and full stops

Serbian punctuation is logical at its core (logička interpunkcija): marks follow meaning, not the mere presence of a conjunction (as in German). Key point: no automatic comma before koji, da, što. What belongs together is not split; what is inserted or added on is marked off.

End-of-sentence marks

The comma (zapeta = zarez): yes or no

Quotation marks (navodnici)

Dash, hyphen, abbreviations (skraćenice)

• Dash crta “—” separates: dialogue lines, an inserted remark, ranges: put Beograd—Niš, radno vreme 9—17.
• Hyphen crtica “-” joins parts of a word and splits it at a line end: crno-beli, društveno-politički.
• Full stop when the word is cut short: itd. etc., npr. e.g., tj. i.e., i sl. and the like, god. year, str. page, g. Mr.
• No full stop when first and last letters are kept: dr doctor, mr master’s degree holder, gđa Mrs. Like British Dr, Mr.

Numbers and dates

• Decimals with a comma: 3,14 (tri zapeta četrnaest), 19,90 dinara.
• Large numbers with a full stop or a space: 25.000 ljudi; four digits may go without: 1000.
• Ordinal = number + full stop: 3. razred = treći razred, 15. mart = petnaesti mart, 21. vek = dvadeset prvi vek (Roman, no full stop: XXI vek).
• Date: day. month. year., every part with a full stop: 15. 3. 2026.