Word order

Verbs and Tenses

Nouns

Pronouns
   - Personal
   - Possesive
   - Demonstrative
   - Interrogative
   - Reflexive
   - Indefinite or impersonal
   - Universal

Prepositions

Adverbs

Question words

Serbian Demonstrative Pronouns (Pokazne zamenice)
(PDF version)

Demonstrative pronouns or pokazne zamenice are used as the substitute for specific nouns. Such pronouns are generally used to show (pokazati) or point to an entity or object present in the context.

Unlike English, which makes only a two-way distinction with respect to a proximity of an object relative to the speaker (eg. this book vs. that book), Serbian makes a three-way distinction, as graphically depicted below.

As the table above shows, the form of a demonstrative varies depending on the location of the object in relation to the speaker (i.e. the 1st person).  The demonstrative ovo indicates that the object is in the proximity (spatial or temporal) of the speaker.  The medium distance demonstrative to indicates that an object is further away from the speaker.  And, the distant demonstrative ovo indicates that an object is remote from both the speaker and the hearer. 

You can see how the demonstrative, meaning ‘this’ changes its final vowel depending on the gender (and also number!) of the noun. In this respect, demonstratives behave like possessive pronouns and adjectives , which also ‘agree’ with the following noun in case, gender and number. In fact, the endings of demonstrative pronouns are identical to the endings of adjectives. Less to memorize!

Also note that unlike pronouns, demonstratives do not distinguish for person (1st, 2nd and 3rd). This is the case for common nouns too.

The following table gives a declension paradigm for the demonstrative pronoun ovaj ‘this’. The same pattern applies to two other forms: taj and onaj.

Example: Vidim ovog čoveka “I see this man” vs. Vidim ovaj grad “I see this town”

As the table above illustrates,  for many cases, the demonstrative forms are identical:

• In plural, the dative, locative and instrumental have the same forms.
• Also in singular, dative and locative forms are identical.
• In plural, gender is not distinguished for genitive, dative, locative and instrumental cases; the same forms apply to all three genders.

Exercise 1 – Fill out the appropriate case forms of demonstrative pronouns in sentences below

Using the demonstratives below (underlined in the English gloss) insert their appropriate case forms.  For convenience, I have indicated which case goes with which sentence.

Exercise 2 – Translate the following sentences

For this exercise you need to know both the present tense and past tense. If you don’t have a bi-directional Serbian-English-Serbian dictionary, you may go to the website: http://www.krstarica.com/dictionary/ to get the words you need for this exercise.