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Kad sam bila mala, svaki dan sam dolazila iz škole, najela sam se i sjela/sela na kauč u dnevnom boravku.

When I was little, every day I came home from school, I ate and sat on the couch in the living room.

Na televiziji je bila smiješna/smešna serija.

There was a funny series on TV.

Glavni lik je bio Steve Urcle/Stiv Urkl.

The main character was Steve Urcle.

On je bio jako nespretan – uvijek/uvek je razbijao stvari slučajno i onda je pitao: „Jesam li ja to napravio? / Da li sam ja to uradio?“

He was very clumsy – he always broke things by accident and then asked, “Did I do that?”

Ali nisam mogla gledati dugo. / Ali nisam mogla da gledam dugo.

But I couldn’t watch for long.

Morala sam učiti i pisati zadaću. / Morala sam da učim i pišem domaći zadatak.

I had to study and write homework.

Kad sam naučila sve i napisala zadaću/zadatak, već sam bila umorna i zaspala.

When I learned everything and wrote the homework, I was already tired and fell asleep.

Spavala sam do 7 sati/časova ujutro i onda sam ustala i išla u školu.

I slept until 7 in the morning and then I got up and went to school.

Jedva sam čekala doći/da dođem iz škole i gledati/gledam Stevea Urclea/Stiva Urkla opet. 

I couldn’t wait to get home from school and watch Steve Urcle again.

*Literally: I barely waited (Jedva sam čekala)

Perfective and imperfective verbs

In this story, perfective and imperfective verbs are in focus. We had an introduction to (im)perfective verb forms in the previous story but now, let’s go deeper into this topic.

What are perfective and what are imperfective verbs?

In English, Spanish, French, and many more non-Slavic languages, there are a lot of tenses. In English, for example, there are present simple and present continuous, then past simple and past continuous, and many more tenses.

Well, in Serbian and Croatian (and in general in Slavic languages), there are much fewer tenses. We actively use only 3 tenses (present, past, and future).

However, we mark a completed action or action that is still in process by using two forms of one verb. These forms are called perfective (svršen) and imperfective (nesvršen).

Perfective forms

Perfective verbs signify completed action, finished, done. It is similar to past simple in English. For example:

…najela sam se i sjela/sela na kauč.

“Najela” comes from the verb najesti (se) and it’s perfective form of the verb “jesti” (to eat). Najesti se means to finish eating, to get full. Eating is over, I ate, so it’s a perfective, finished verb. If we want to say that I was eating, we emphasize that it lasted for a long time, we would use the imperfective form – jesti (Jela sam.)

The same works for a perfective form of the verb “to sit” – sjesti / sesti.

Its imperfective form is sjediti. So if you want to say that you sat down, this action was quick and you want to inform somebody about the result – use perfective form – Sjeo sam; Sjela sam / Seo sam / Sela sam.

If you want to inform about the activity you were doing, it lasted for a longer time, use the imperfective verb – Sjedio sam; Sjedila sam / Sedio sam; Sedila sam.

The same is in all the verbs when using them in the PAST TENSE or FUTURE TENSE.

• the result is in focus – perfective (finished)
• the activity is in focus – imperfective (not finished)

Moreover, in the past tense, you use the imperfective form when talking about something in the far past, what you used to do, what was your routine in the past.

Kad sam bila mala, svaki dan sam dolazila iz škole.

Instead of using the perfective form – doći (došao, došla, došli), we use its imperfective form because that was the routine of the narrator in the past, when she was little.

Uvijek / Uvek je razbijao stvari.

In that sentence, the imperfective verb is used (razbijati) and not its perfective form (razbiti) because it’s about the routine, what always happened in the series when she watched it as a little girl.

PRESENT TENSE

Which form to use in the present tense?

If you talk about what you do in general, about your routine or what are you doing right now – use the imperfective form only.

In all these cases, the perfective form sounds strange.

For example, if you want to say that you’re drinking coffee right now or that you drink it every day, instead of using perfective form – popijem kavu / kafu – use imperfective – pijem kavu / kafu.

However, after a connector (the most common connectors are: da, kad, dok), use perfective present:

Mama mi je rekla da popijem kavu/kafu i dođem kod nje.

*NOTE that here we talk about “da” meaning to…do something, and not “that”. With “that”, we can use imperfective form (Mama mi je rekla da pije kavu/kafu i dolazi k meni – My mom said that she’s drinking coffee and coming to my place)

RADITI – URADITI – NAPRAVITI

The verb we use every day is the verb “to do”. In both Croatian and Serbian, it is – RADITI. And that’s an imperfective form, not finished. Its perfective form is uraditi in Serbian and napraviti in Croatian.

Therefore, when you want to ask about someone’s activities, you will use imperfective form:

Što/šta si radio danas?

And when you want to know the achievements, the results, you will use perfective form:

Što si napravio danas? (CRO) / Šta si uradio danas?

How to know which form is perfective and which one is imperfective?

Good question! But the answer is not so comforting 😉

Part of verbs has the prefix (small part that comes in the beginning of a word) in perfective forms so you can know these are finished, and without prefix, these are imperfective, unfinished verbs. For example:

• to eat: jesti (imperfective) – pojesti (perfective); najesti se (also one more perfective form with a little bit different meaning we explained above)
• to watch; to look: gledati (imperfective) – pogledati (perfective)
• to learn, to study: učiti (imperfecitve) – naučiti (perfective)
• to write: pisati (imperfective) – napisati (perfective)

The prefixes are different. In most cases, they are “po” and “na” but there are also other ones like:

• to read: čitati – pročitati
• to cook: kuhati/kuvati – skuhati/skuvati
• to wash: prati – oprati

Now we come to the less comforting part: many verbs can not be recognized by prefix but you just need to remember which form is perfective and which one imperfective. Just like the verb we have in the text – sjediti (imperf) and sjesti (perf) / sediti (imperf) and sesti (perf). More example:

• to come, to arrive: dolaziti (imperf) – doći (perf)
• to get up: ustajati (imperf) – ustati (perf)
• to come back, to get back: vraćati (se) (imperf) – vratiti (se) (perf)
• to pay: plaćati (imperf) – platiti (perf)
• to buy: kupovati (imperf) – kupiti (perf)

Let’s analyze and compare the examples form the text

IMPERFECTIVE	PERFECTIVE	HOW WOULD IT SOUND IN OPPOSITE FORM
Kad sam bila mala (verb to be doesn’t have two forms), svaki dan sam dolazila iz škole -routine in the past		If we’d use perfective form “doći”, we’d use it in context like I came yesterday, I came only once, it was not routine: Jučer su došli moji roditelji u goste (Yesterday my parents came in guests)
	…najela sam se i sjela na kauč.	We’d use imperfective forms in the context of long-lasting activity: …ja sam dolazila iz škole, jela sam 2 sata, sjedila na kauču cijeli dan…
Uvijek/Uvek je razbijao stvari…		Example of using its perfective form: Jednom je razbio vazu. (Once / One day he broke a jar)
Onda je pitao…		Onda je upitao… Actually, upitati really is perfective form of the verb “pitati” but there is no difference in meaning. If you want to say “He asked once”, you can use both forms (On je pitao // On je upitao). If you want to say he was constantly asking, the sentence will be the same: On je stalno pitao.
	Jesam li ja to napravio? / Da li sam ja to uradio?	Jesam li ja to radio svaki dan? Da li sam ja to radio svaki dan? -we need routine or longer period to use its imperfective form
Ali nisam mogla gledati dugo. / Ali nisam mogla da gledam dugo. -verb “to be able” – moći – doesn’t have two forms [and other modal verbs don’t have, too]		Jučer nisam mogla pogledati / da pogledam seriju jer je brat gledao utakmicu. (Yesterday I couldn’t watch my series because my brother was watching the match.) -we want to say that the series couldn’t be watched from beginning to end -if we want to say that the series couldn’t be watched in general, not completely, we can say: Nisam mogla gledati seriju / Nisam mogla da gledam seriju.
Morala sam učiti i pisati zadaću. / Morala sam da učim i pišem zadatak. -the accent is on the long-lasting activities (learning and doing homework for hours)		Morala sam naučiti engleski i napisati zadaću. / Morala sam da naučim engleski i napišem zadaću. -with perfective forms, we talk about the achievements we needed to gain or tasks we needed to do
	Kad sam naučila i napisala zadaću/zadatak –When I learned and wrote…	Kad sam učila i pisala… –While I was learning and writing…
	…već sam bila umorna i zaspala.	There is no imperfective form of this verb – zaspati (to fall asleep)
Spavala sam do 7 sati ujutro		Odspavala sam malo, do 7, a išla sam spavati u 3. -odspavati is used for short periods of sleeping
	i onda sam ustala	Ustajala sam svaki dan u 7. -routine – imperfective
…i išla u školu.		Similar to the case with “pitati” and “upitati” are the verbs ići and otići. You can use ići for both perfective and imperfective functions, and otići only for perfective. Otišla sam u školu. – I left, I’m there, it’s finished.
Jedva sam čekala doći iz škole / Jedva sam čekala da dođem iz škole		Pričela sam mamu da dođe s posla. -perfective form “pričekati” signifies waiting for a little bit, for a short period