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Serbian prepositions that take genitive case
(PDF version)
Most prepositions take the genitive case. But you need to
know their meaning. The following are some most frequent
prepositions.
Table 1: List of Serbian prepositions that take genitive
case on the noun that follows
|
Prepositions meaning ‘from’ |
|
Serbian |
English |
Example |
| izgen |
i. Source of movement
ii. place of origin |
i. Idem iz škole.
ii. Ja sam iz Srbije. |
| odgen |
ii. From someone’s
place
ii. starting point of time
iii. made of |
ii. Idem od Milana.
ii. Radim od jutra do mraka.
iii. Volim sok od pomorandže.
iii. Ova narukvica je od zlata. |
| sagen |
i. down from, picking
up an object from above
ii. translating something from one language
iii. coming from some place viewed as an event or
surface
|
i. Uzimam ovo sa stola.
ii. Prevodim sa srpskog jezika
iii. Dolazim sa konferencije.
iii. Dolazim sa fakulteta. |
|
Other prepositions that take genitive |
|
Serbian |
English |
Example |
| kodgen |
i. at someone’s place
or vicinity |
i. Idem kod mog
prijatelja.
ii. Idem kod njega. |
| dogen |
i. up to a certain
place
ii. up to a certain time |
i. Idem do škole.
ii. Radim do mraka. |
| bezgen |
i. without, lack of
something |
i. On pije vodu bez
leda.
i. Nema prijatelja. |
| poredgen |
i. next to, beside |
i. Moja mačka je pored
stolice. |
| blizugen |
i. near |
i. Ona je blizu moje
mačke. |
| izmeđugen |
i. between |
i. Milan je između mog
brata i moje mame. |
| okogen |
i. over
something/someone, usually with ‘se’ verbs |
i. Oni se svađaju oko
mene. |
| zboggen |
i. due to, because of |
ii. Oni ne govore zbog
Milana. |
Memorize these prepositional pairs that go together (but mean different
things)
u + acc and
iz + gen (to/up
to - from)
1. Idem u školu
ujutru a vraćam se
iz škole uveče.
‘I am going to school in the morning and am returning
from school in the evening’
na +
acc and
sa + gen
(to – from)
2. Idem na fakultet
ujutru a vraćam se
sa fakulteta uveče.
‘I am going to the university in the morning and am
returning from the university in the evening’
Note that ‘u’ and ‘na’
denote ‘motion towards’, and the accusative case is used for
these.
The prepositions ‘iz’
and ‘sa’ denote ‘motion
from’ and the genitive case is used for these.
kod +
gen and
od + gen
(to someone’s place – from someone’s place)
3. Idem kod Milana
ujutru a vraćam se
od Milana uveče.
‘I am going to Milan’s place in the morning and am
returning from Milan’s place in the evening’
See the accusative prepositions to see when to use u and when to use na in
examples such as 1 and 2.
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