Table of Contents
In this lesson, we will learn Serbian word order and — most importantly — the famous “second position” rule for short words called enclitics. If you have ever wondered why one says Ja sam kupio but Kupio sam (and never Ja kupio sam), this lesson will give you the answer.
Basic word order
The neutral word order in Serbian is the same as in English: Subject + Verb + Object:
Marko čita knjigu – Marko reads a book
However, because the cases show the role of every word, the order is flexible, and you can move words around to emphasize them:
Knjigu čita Marko – It is Marko who reads the book (emphasis on Marko)
All these variants are correct — but the enclitics described below must always stay in the second position.
What are enclitics?
Enclitics are the short, unstressed forms of pronouns and auxiliary verbs. You already know all of them:
Verbal enclitics:
Sam, si, je, smo, ste, su – short forms of BITI (used in the past tense)
Ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će – short forms of HTETI (used in the future tense)
Bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi – conditional forms of BITI
Pronominal enclitics:
Dative: mi, ti, mu, joj, nam, vam, im – to me, to you, to him, to her, to us, to you, to them
Accusative: me, te, ga, je, nas, vas, ih – me, you, him/it, her, us, you, them
The reflexive particle: se
The question particle: li
The second position rule
An enclitic cannot stand at the beginning of a sentence. It must stand in the second position — right after the first stressed word or phrase:
Ja sam kupio hleb – I bought bread (pronoun first, enclitic second)
Kupio sam hleb – I bought bread (verb first, enclitic second)
Juče sam kupio hleb – Yesterday I bought bread (adverb first, enclitic second)
But never: Sam kupio hleb, Ja kupio sam hleb
The same rule works for pronouns and SE:
Vidim ga – I see him
Ona se zove Milica – Her name is Milica
Zovem se Marko – My name is Marko (never Se zovem Marko)
The order inside a group of enclitics
When several enclitics meet in one sentence, they all stand together in the second position, in this exact order:
1. LI 2. verbal enclitic (except JE) 3. dative pronoun 4. accusative pronoun 5. SE 6. JE
| Dao sam ti ga | I gave it to you (verbal + dative + accusative) |
| Ja ću ti pomoći | I will help you |
| Ona mi se predstavila | She introduced herself to me |
| Dala mu je knjigu | She gave him the book (JE goes last!) |
| Da li ste ih videli? | Have you seen them? |
Questions
The easiest way to ask a yes/no question is to put DA LI at the beginning:
Da li govoriš srpski? – Do you speak Serbian?
Another way is to put the verb first and add LI after it:
Govoriš li srpski? – Do you speak Serbian?
Jesi li gladan? – Are you hungry? (the long form JESI is used because an enclitic cannot be first)
With question words, no particle is needed: Šta radiš? – What are you doing?
Negation
The particle NE stands directly before the verb and is written separately:
Ne radim danas – I am not working today
Ona ne zna – She doesn’t know
Only three verbs merge with NE into one word: nisam (ne + sam), neću (ne + hoću), nemam (ne + imam).
Examples
Juče smo se vratili sa mora – Yesterday we came back from the seaside
Kako si mi ti? – How are you? (friendly, literally: how are you to me?)
Poslaću vam ga sutra – I will send it to you tomorrow
Da li će nam oni pomoći? – Will they help us?
Njegova sestra mu je kupila poklon – His sister bought him a present
Videli smo se u gradu – We saw each other in town
Ne sećam ga se – I don’t remember him
Zašto mi ga nisi dao? – Why didn’t you give it to me?
Vocabulary
| hleb – bread
pomoći – to help predstaviti se – to introduce oneself gladan – hungry more – sea, seaside |
poslati – to send
poklon – present, gift vratiti se – to come back sećati se – to remember grad – city, town |
Exercises
Put the words in the correct order
- (sam / ja / kupio / auto) – I bought a car
- (se / zovem / Ana) – My name is Ana
- (je / ona / došla / juče) – She came yesterday
- (ti / dao / sam / ga) – I gave it to you
- (li / da / voliš / kafu) – Do you like coffee?
- (će / pomoći / nam / oni) – They will help us
- (mu / je / dala / knjigu / ona) – She gave him the book
- (se / mi / predstavio / on) – He introduced himself to me
Answers
1: Ja sam kupio auto / Kupio sam auto; 2: Zovem se Ana; 3: Ona je došla juče / Juče je došla / Došla je juče; 4: Dao sam ti ga; 5: Da li voliš kafu?; 6: Oni će nam pomoći; 7: Ona mu je dala knjigu / Dala mu je knjigu; 8: On mi se predstavio / Predstavio mi se