Lesson 41 · Part 4

Lesson 41. Verbs ending in -im (raditi)

Pattern: raditi (to work)

raditi — present tense

PersonFormTranslation
I radim (радим) I work
you (singular) radiš (радиш) you work
he/she/it radi (ради) he/she/it works
we radimo (радимо) we work
you (plural) radite (радите) you work
they rade (раде) they work

More verbs of this type

govoriti (говорити)
— to speak: govorim, govoriš, govori…
učiti (учити)
— to teach: učim, učiš, uči…
voleti (волети)
— to love: volim, voliš, voli, volimo, volite, vole
misliti (мислити)
— to think: mislim, misliš, misli…
sedeti (седети)
— to sit: sedim, sediš, sedi…
stojati (стојати)
— to stand: stojim, stojiš, stoji…
živeti (живети)
— to live: živim, živiš, živi…
spavati (спавати)
— to sleep: **spavam**, spavaš… (note — this is an `-am` type!)

Interesting: voleti

The familiar volim (“I love”) comes from here. The infinitive is voleti (to love), but the “I” form is volim — with -im. In this type, the infinitive can end in -iti or -eti, but the present tense always has -im.

Small letter changes

Some verbs of this type change the final consonant of the stem. For now, two are important:

moći → mogu / možeš / može / možemo / možete / mogu (моћи → могу / можеш / може / можемо / можете / могу)
— to be able (an irregular verb!)

moći is one of the most common irregular verbs. We memorise it as is.

In speech

Radim u školi. (Радим у школи.)
— I work at school.
Govoriš li srpski? (Говориш ли српски?)
— Do you speak Serbian?
Učimo srpski. (Учимо српски.)
— We are learning Serbian.
Oni žive u Beogradu. (Они живе у Београду.)
— They live in Belgrade.

Exercises

Exercise 1

How do you say "I speak" in Serbian?

Show explanation

govorim.

Exercise 2

The form "they teach" (učiti):

Show explanation

In the -im type, “they” = -e. So uče.

Exercise 3

Conjugate voleti in all 6 forms.

Show answer

volim, voliš, voli, volimo, volite, vole.

Exercise 4

Translate: “We live in Moscow” (Moskva).

Show answer

Živimo u Moskvi.Moskva → u Moskvi (we will study the case later).

Exercise 5

How do the “they” endings differ between the -am type and the -im type?

Show answer

-am type: -aju (čitaju). -im type: -e (rade, uče, vole).

Lesson vocabulary

raditi (радити)
— to work
govoriti (говорити)
— to speak
učiti (учити)
— to teach
voleti (волети)
— to love
misliti (мислити)
— to think
sedeti (седети)
— to sit
živeti (живети)
— to live
moći (моћи)
— to be able
srpski (српски)
— Serbian (language)
Beograd (Београд)
— Belgrade