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