Lesson 37. Short Forms: sam, si, je, smo, ste, su

The Six Most Common Words

biti — short forms

	Person	Latin script	Cyrillic
I	sam	сам	I am
you (singular)	si	си	you are
he/she/it	je	је	is
we	smo	смо	we are
you (plural)	ste	сте	you are
they	su	су	they are

The Main Rule: Never First

Short forms are unstressed. They never come in the first position in a sentence. This is important.

Here’s How They Work

Ja sam dobro. (Ја сам добро.)

— I am well.

Ti si učenik. (Ти си ученик.)

— You are a student.

On je moj brat. (Он је мој брат.)

— He is my brother.

Mi smo kod kuće. (Ми смо код куће.)

— We are at home.

Vi ste iz Rusije? (Ви сте из Русије?)

— Are you from Russia?

Oni su moji prijatelji. (Они су моји пријатељи.)

— They are my friends.

The “Second Place” Rule: What Counts as First

“First” can be a single word or a whole group:

Moj brat je velik. (Мој брат је велик.)

— My brother is big. ('My brother' is one group.)

Danas sam umoran. (Данас сам уморан.)

— Today I am tired.

U školi smo sada. (У школи смо сада.)

— We are in school now.

In the last examples, je, sam, smo — the second word of the sentence, right after the first “chunk.”

Without the Pronoun

In Serbian, you often don’t say the pronoun ja, ti, on…. The form of biti itself tells you who it is:

Sam dobro. (Сам добро.)

— (I) am well.

Si spreman? (Си спреман?)

— Are you ready?

Je velik. (Је велик.)

— (He) is big.

Exercises

Exercise 1

What form for 'he/she'?

Show explanation

je — for ‘he/she/it’.

Exercise 2

Which sentence is wrong?

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Smo can’t be the first word. Right: ‘Mi smo…’ or ‘Danas smo…’.

Exercise 3

Fill in with the correct form of biti: Ja ___ umoran. Ti ___ učenik. Mi ___ u školi. Oni ___ moja porodica.

Show answer

sam, si, smo, su.

Exercise 4

Translate: ‘My sister is at school’ and ‘We are at home today’.

Show answer

— Moja sestra je u školi. — Mi smo danas kod kuće. (or Danas smo kod kuće.)

Exercise 5

Why is Sam ja Ana wrong?

Show answer

The short form sam cannot be the first word of a sentence. It is unstressed and always comes after the first word (or group).

Lesson vocabulary

sam (сам): — I am
si (си): — you are (singular)
je (је): — he/she/it is
smo (смо): — we are
ste (сте): — you are (plural)
su (су): — they are
prijatelj (пријатељ): — friend
spreman (спреман): — ready
kod kuće (код куће): — at home

Completed