Focus Before the Verb

Topic or focus? Macedonian word order is flexible, and the front of a sentence can hold two different things. A topic is something already known that the sentence is about. A known object moved to the front is repeated with a short pronoun and is often followed by a small pause: Чајот го сакам. (Tea, I like it.) See предмет пред глаголот со удвојување. A focus is the new or contrasting information. It carries the strongest stress in the sentence and joins the verb with no pause: ЧАЈ сакам, не кафе. (It is tea I want, not coffee.) In these examples, capital letters only mark the stress. Macedonian does not write words this way.

When to use it. Focus before the verb is natural when you correct someone or pick one option out of several:

• Кафе ли пиеш? — Не, ЧАЈ пијам. (Are you drinking coffee? — No, I am drinking tea.)
• ДВЕ книги купив, не три. (I bought two books, not three.)
• ВО СКОПЈЕ живеам, не во Битола. (It is Skopje I live in, not Bitola.)

The neutral order with the object after the verb is always possible too: Пијам чај. Moving the stressed word forward simply puts the spotlight on it (compare ред на зборовите: подмет; прирок; предмет).

Short pronouns follow the object, not the stress.

• An indefinite object, such as a bare noun or a number with a noun, has no short pronoun: ЧАЈ сакам. · ДВЕ книги купив.
• A definite object, such as a noun with the article, a name or a full pronoun, keeps its short pronoun even when it is stressed, because Macedonian doubles definite objects in every position (see удвојување на определен објект): МАРКО го видов, не Ана. · ТЕБЕ те чекам. (It is you I am waiting for.)

So in ЧАЈ сакам and Чајот го сакам, the short pronoun comes from the article: чај is indefinite and чајот is definite. The stress and the missing pause show which one is the focus.

Other parts of the sentence. A subject, a time or a place can be focused in the same spot: ЈАС ќе платам. (I will pay.) · УТРЕ заминувам, не денес. (It is tomorrow I am leaving, not today.) Question words stand in this spot as well: Што сакаш? Кого чекаш? A new subject, by contrast, usually goes after the verb (see глагол пред подметот: дојде Марко).

In writing the stress cannot be seen, so a contrast such as не кафе or a particle such as само, баш or токму usually makes the focus clear: Само чај пијам. (I only drink tea.) See барем; дури; баш; токму.