Lesson Goals
By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:
- Understand the overall tense system in Serbian
- Recognize which tenses are common in modern speech and which are rare or literary
- Identify basic formation rules for each tense
- Prepare for in-depth lessons on each tense
1. Tense System in Serbian
Serbian verbs have 7 tenses in total:
| Group |
Tense (Name) |
Usage in Modern Serbian |
| Present & Future |
Present (Prezent) |
very common |
|
Future I |
very common |
|
Future II |
rare, mostly formal/literary |
| Past |
Perfect (Perfekat) |
very common |
|
Pluperfect (Pluskvamperfekat) |
rare, formal/literary |
|
Aorist |
common in literature, rare in speech |
|
Imperfect |
obsolete, only in literature |
2. Core Tenses in Modern Speech
In everyday Serbian, most communication uses:
- Present (Prezent) — actions happening now or regularly
- Čitam knjigu. — I am reading a book. / I read books.
- Perfect (Perfekat) — completed past actions, most common past tense
- Pročitao sam knjigu. — I have read the book.
- Future I — actions that will happen
- Pročitaću knjigu sutra. — I will read the book tomorrow.
These three make up 90% of verb use in modern conversation.
3. Other Tenses
- Future II — used in formal writing, laws, or to indicate a future action that must happen before another
- Ako budem imao vremena, doći ću. — If I have time, I will come.