Past tense in Serbian language

In order to form the past tense in the Serbian language, you need to know how to conjugate the verb BITI – to be, in the present tense, and know the endings of verbs in the past tense that we will consider now.

The conjugation in the past tense depends on gender and number. There are 3 genders in the Serbian language: masculine, feminine, and neuter. In order to use a past tense ending, drop –TI and add an appropriate one:

	Singular	Plural
Masculine	-O	-LI
Feminine	-LA	-LE
Neuter	-LO	-LA

In order to conjugate a verb in the past tense, use the appropriate ending and add BITI (to be) in the appropriate form. The formula of the past tense looks like this: BITI in the present tense + verb with the past tense ending.

Let’s consider it in practice:

Kupiti  – to buy

Ja sam kupio Ja sam kupila	I bought (a man says) I bought (a woman says)
Ti si kupio Ti si kupila	You bought (said to a man) You bought (said to a woman)
On je kupio Ona je kupila Ono je kupilo	He bought She bought It bought
Mi smo kupili Mi smo kupile	We bought (m+m or m+w) We bought (w+w)
Vi ste kupili Vi ste kupile	You bought (m+m or m+w) You bought (w+w)
Oni su kupili One su kupile	They bought (m+m or m+w) They bought (w+w)

Also, when/if we want to hide a personal pronoun, we place the verb first and BITI after it. For example Kupio sam – I bought, Kupili smo – We bought, and so on. Notice: the short forms of BITI (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) always stand in the second position in the sentence: with a pronoun we say Ja sam kupio, and without a pronoun Kupio sam — never Ja kupio sam.

Irregular verbs:

Ići – to go, stem in past IŠA-

Doći – to come, stem in past DOŠA-

Reći – to say/to tell, stem in past REKA-

Negative and interrogative forms

In order to form the negative form of the Serbian past tense, use a form of BITI with the prefix NI-:

Ja nisam, ti nisi, on nije, mi nismo, vi niste, oni nisu;

And in order to form the interrogative form, place DA LI at the beginning of the sentence:

Da li sam ja pevao? – Did I sing?

Da li smo mi putovali? – Did we travel?

Da li su radili? – Did they work? (notice, one can hide a pronoun, in this case – ONI)

Conjugation of BITI and HTETI in the past tense

The verb BITI is conjugated like all other regular verbs in the past tense.

BITI – to be

Ja sam bio Ja sam bila	I was
Ti si bio Ti si bila	You were
On je bio Ona je bila Ono je bilo	He was She was It was
Mi smo bili Mi smo bile	We were
Vi ste bili Vi ste bile	You were
Oni su bili One su bile	They were

Modal verbs in the past tense

Moći – can	Hteti – to want	Morati – must/to have to
Ja sam mogao Ja sam mogla	Ja sam hteo Ja sam htela	Ja sam morao Ja sam morala
Ti si mogao Ti si mogla	Ti si hteo Ti si htela	Ti si morao Ti si morala
On je mogao Ona je mogla Ono je moglo	On je hteo Ona je htela Ono je htelo	On je morao Ona je morala Ono je moralo
Mi smo mogli Mi smo mogle	Mi smo hteli Mi smo htele	Mi smo morali Mi smo morale
Vi ste mogli Vi ste mogle	Vi ste hteli Vi ste htele	Vi ste morali Vi ste morale
Oni su mogli One su mogle Ona su mogla	Oni su hteli One su htele Ona su htela	Oni su morali One su morale Ona su morala

Examples

Ja sam ti rekao – I told you

Ja sam juče govorio ruski – I spoke Russian yesterday

Da li su farbali zid? – Did they paint the wall?

Šta si mogla da radiš? – What could you do?

Mi nismo hteli da čekamo – We didn’t want to wait

Da li ste morali da to radite? – Did you have to do it?

Gde si bio? – Where were you?

Vocabulary

reći – to say juče – yesterday farbati – to paint

zid – wall čekati – to wait ruski – Russian

Exercises

1. Moja sestra (feminine) ______________ na divanu (LEŽATI – to lie down) – My sister lay down on the sofa
2. Jabuka (feminine) ______________ sa drveta (PASTI – to fall, past stem PA-) – The apple fell from the tree (jabuka – apple, drvo – tree)
3. Hrčak ______________ da jede (HTETI – to want) – The hamster wanted to eat (hrčak – hamster, jesti – to eat)
4. Naši prijatelji ______________ film (GLEDATI – to watch/to look at) – Our friends watched a film
5. Ja (female) ______________ to drugačije (ZAMIŠLJATI – to imagine) – I imagined it differently
6. Ovi ljudi ___ ______________ ovde (BITI – to be) – These people were here
7. Šta ___ oni ______________ tu (RADITI – to do/to work) kada su bili ovde? – What did they do when they were here?
8. Da li ___ vi ______________ muzej? (POSETITI – to visit) – Have you visited the museum? (muzej – museum)
9. Ja(male) ______________ zid (FARBATI – to paint) – I painted the wall (zid – wall)
10. Hrana ______________ u frižideru (BITI – to be) – The food was in the refrigerator (frižider – refrigerator)
11. Ja _____________________ tekst (PISATI – to write) – I was writing a text
12. ____________________ pesmu (PEVATI – to sing) – (She) sang a song
13. ______________________ večeru (SPREMITI – to prepare/to cook) – We cooked dinner
14. Juče _______________ na koncertu (BITI – to be) – We were at a concert yesterday
15. Hrčak ___________ da jede (HTETI – to want) – The hamster wanted to eat
16. Gde __________? (BITI – to be) – Where were you? (plural, feminine)

Answers:

1: je ležala, 2: je pala, 3: je hteo, 4: su gledali, 5: zamišljala sam, 6: su bili, 7: su, radili, 8: ste,  posetili, 9: sam farbao, 10: je bila, 11: pisao sam, 12: pevala je, 13: spremili smo, 14: smo bili, 15: je hteo, 16: ste bile