Lesson 43. Questions: da li…? and je li…?
In Russian, we ask yes/no questions using intonation alone: “you love tea?” In Serbian, intonation works too, but more often there are marker words.
Two ways to ask a question
1. Regular intonation
Just raise your voice at the end—like in Russian:
This is the casual way. It works everywhere.
2. With li after the verb
In more “proper” speech and in writing, people often add a small word li:
3. With da li at the beginning
There is another way, the most common in modern speech—add da li at the start:
da li = “li” (the question marker). Same meaning, just different word order.
With the verb biti
Special case. With je, use je li:
Or shorter—with rising intonation:
With other forms of biti:
Notice that biti in questions uses full forms (jesi, jesmo), not short ones? In questions, short forms don’t work: *Si li umoran? is wrong.
Questions with “who, what, where, when”
If the question already has a question word (šta, ko, gde, kada, zašto)—you don’t need li:
Exercises
Exercise 1
What is the best way to ask 'Do you speak Serbian?'
Show explanation
All three are correct. The first is casual, the second and third are slightly more formal.
Exercise 2
'Is this your house?' — which is better?
Show explanation
Both work fine.
Exercise 3
Turn into a question: Ti učiš srpski. (three ways).
Show answer
— Učiš srpski? (intonation)
— Učiš li srpski? (with li)
— Da li učiš srpski? (with da li)
Exercise 4
Translate: “What are you drinking?” and “Where is your brother?”
Show answer
— Šta piješ?
— Gde je tvoj brat?
Exercise 5
Why can’t you say Si li umoran??
Show answer
In questions, biti uses full forms. The correct version is Jesi li umoran?.
Lesson vocabulary
- li ли
- li (question marker)
- da li да ли
- li (at the beginning of a question)
- gde? где?
- where?
- kada? када?
- when?
- zašto? зашто?
- why?
- kako? како?
- how?