English has one “you” for everyone; Serbian has two. Ti is the familiar “you”, for people you are close to; Vi is the polite “you”, for people you keep at a respectful distance. Linguists call this the T–V distinction, after Latin tu and vos; if you know French tu / vous or German du / Sie, you know the idea. One surprise stands out at once: Serbs move to ti sooner than the textbook rule suggests, especially young people, students and anyone in IT. Here is the rule and the surprise, so you seem neither cold nor overfamiliar.
When ti, when Vi
The guides are age, status and setting:
A handy rule: anyone you would call Mr, Mrs or Dr in English, and any adult stranger, gets Vi first. It is almost always safe. Erring upwards (a little too polite) is no embarrassment; erring downwards (a chummy ti to a stranger) is awkward.
The grammar of Vi: everything in the plural
When a Serb speaks to one person as Vi, both the verb and the l-participle go into the plural, whether that person is a man or a woman. (The l-participle is the past form ending in -o / -la that the past tense is built from: došao for a man, došla for a woman, došli for several. The lessons “The l-participle” and “The perfect (perfekat)” cover it in full.)
Cheat sheet
The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.
ti is the familiar “you”, Vi the polite one (the T–V split of French tu / vous, German du / Sie). Serbs move to ti early, especially among people of the same age, at university and in IT.
Which one
Grammar of Vi: all plural
To one person, man or woman: the verb and the l-participle (the past form: došao, došla, došli) are plural, the participle in the masculine plural (došli, not “došla”).
Switching to ti
Forms of address
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