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The Serbian Present Tense of -am
(Sadašnje vreme)
(PDF version)
Here is the list of endings for the –am
verb class.
Table 1: The Present Tense Endings of -am
Verbs
| |
SINGULAR |
PLURAL |
| First person |
-am |
-amo |
| Second person |
-aš |
-ate |
| Third person |
-a |
-aju |
The majority of the verbs (over 5,000) in this class are
formed from the infinitive verbs which end in –ati.
Table 2. Examples of -am
verbs derived from the infinitive in -ati
| infinitive |
čekati ‘to wait’ |
čitati ‘to read’ |
imati ‘to have’ |
| present stem |
ček- |
čit- |
im- |
Click here to see a more comprehensive list of -am
verbs derived from the infinitive -ati.
Since –im verbs can also
be derived from the infinitive in –ati,
you may wonder how to know which verb belongs to which
class. Since the majority of verbs in –ati,
belong to the –am class,
you may safely assume that an –ati
verb you encounter in a dictionary belongs to the –am
class. The majority wins, as always.
But there is also a rule to guide you if you don’t want to
take guesses: If you see an infinitive verb that ends in -ati
with any of the following palatal consonants:
č, ž, j, št, žd
preceding the -ati, that
verb would belong to the –im
class. All other –ati
verbs would belong to the –am
class.
Some examples of –am
verbs (for a longer list click here)
Table 3: Examples of present tense of -am
verbs
| -ati
infinitive |
-ati
infinitive |
-ati
infinitive |
| Čitati
(to read) |
Pričati
(to talk) |
Spavati
(to sleep) |
| Čit-am
(I read) |
Prič-am
(I talk) |
Spav-am
(I sleep) |
| Čit-aš
(you read) |
Prič-aš
(you talk) |
Spav-aš
(you sleep) |
| Čit-a
(he/she/it read) |
Prič-a
(he/she/it talks) |
Spav-a
(he/she/it sleep) |
| Čit-amo
(we read) |
Prič-amo
(we talk) |
Spav-amo
(we sleep) |
| Čit-ate
(you read) |
Prič-ate
(you talk) |
Spav-ate
(you sleep) |
| Čit-aju
(they read) |
Prič-aju
(they talk) |
Spav-aju
(they sleep) |
The present tense of imati
‘have’
The verb imati ‘have’
behaves like a regular –am
verb, but when it is negated, it has a bit unusual (though
predictable) pattern. The table below shows this.
Table 4: Present tense of the verb
imati
‘to have’
| |
|
Non-negated form |
Negated form |
Examples |
| |
| SINGULAR |
1 |
imam |
nemam |
Ja nemam ništa. ‘I don’ have anything’. |
| 2 |
imaš |
nemaš |
Ti imaš sve. ‘You have everything.’ |
| 3 |
ima |
nema |
On ima malo. ‘He has little.’ |
| |
| PLURAL |
1 |
imamo |
nemamo |
Mi nemamo novca. ‘We don’t have money.’ |
| 2 |
imate |
nemate |
Vi imate novac. ‘You have money.’ |
| 3 |
imaju |
nemaju |
Oni imaju sve. ‘They have everything.’ |
As a conclusion to this section, here is the table of
conjugated forms for some verbs in the –am
class:
Table 5: Present tense verb forms for -am
verbs - examples
| English |
Infinitive |
Present – for all
persons
singular - first line, plural – second line |
Verb class |
| sleep |
spavati |
spavam, spavaš, spava
spavamo, spavate, spavaju |
-am |
| read |
čitati |
čitam, čitaš, čita
čitamo, čitate, čitaju |
-am |
| ask |
pitati |
pitam, pitaš, pita
pitamo, pitate, pitaju |
-am |
| know |
znati |
znam, znaš, zna
znamo, znate, znaju |
-am |
| have |
imati |
imam, imaš, ima
imamo, imate, imaju |
-am |
| talk |
razgovarati |
razgovaram, razgovaraš, razgovara
razgovaramo, razgovarate, razgovaraju |
-am |
| speak |
pričati |
pričam, pricaš, priča
pričamo, pričate, pričaju |
-am |
| watch |
gledati |
gledam, gledaš, gleda
gledamo, gledate, gledaju |
-am |
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