postoji / ima

Saying Something Exists

Level 1

Existential ima introduces the presence or availability of something. Postojati means exist and has a subject that controls its verb agreement.

How It Works

For an available amount, use ima with a genitive expression: Ima kruha. Its negative is Nema kruha. Here ima does not mean that an unnamed he or she owns the bread.

Postoji and postoje belong to an agreeing verb: Postoji problem. but Postoje problemi. This gives an explicit statement of existence.

Do not turn the availability examples into a rule for every sentence containing imati. Personal possession has its own subject and object, and existential singular-noun constructions can have further variation. Learn the genitive quantity frame and the agreeing postojati frame as two clear starting patterns.

Examples (4)

  1. Ovdje ima vode.

    There is water here.

    Vode is a genitive quantity expression.

  2. Nema kruha.

    There is no bread.

    Nema negates availability.

  3. Postoji problem.

    There is a problem.

    Postoji agrees with singular problem.

  4. Postoje dva ulaza.

    There are two entrances.

    Postoje is plural in this counted subject construction.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

postoji / imaLevel 1Saying Something Exists

Learn This First

Contrast impersonal existential ima with the already known personal possession frame.

Words in This Pattern

postojatiimatiima