да бих / да би

Purpose with the Conditional

Level 3Sounds Like da bih; da bi za nameru

Use да бих / да би... followed by the active past participle (L-participle) to express in order to or so that. Although it uses forms from the conditional, it carries no doubt or hypothetical meaning—it purely expresses deliberate purpose.

How It Works

In Serbian syntax, purpose clauses (намерне реченице) explain the goal or intended outcome of the main clause.

1. Auxiliary Conjugation
Even though casual speech sometimes freezes the verb into invariant би, standard Serbian requires the auxiliary to inflect for person and number:

  • 1st sg: да бих
  • 2nd sg: да би
  • 3rd sg: да би
  • 1st pl: да бисмо
  • 2nd pl: да бисте
  • 3rd pl: да би

2. Participle Agreement
The lexical verb appears as a past active participle (L-participle) and must agree in gender and number with the subject of the purpose clause (e.g., да бих учио for masculine, да бих учила for feminine).

3. Fronted Clauses (Inversion)
When a purpose clause is fronted to the very beginning of the sentence before the main clause, standard Serbian requires the potential mood (потенцијал) rather than да + present (e.g., you cannot say *Да положим испит, учио сам). While да би(х) is by far the most common choice (Да бих положио испит, учио сам), other purpose connectives such as како би(х) or не би ли are also fully standard.

4. Negative Purpose
When using the potential construction to express negative purpose ('in order not to', 'so as not to', or 'lest'), insert the negative particle не before the auxiliary: да не би(х) + L-participle. Note that не is written separately from the auxiliary in this construction: Пожурио је да не би закаснио ('He hurried in order not to be late'). Note that when following the main verb, negative purpose is also very frequently expressed with да + не + present (e.g., Пожурио је да не закасни).

5. Clitic Placement
Clitics naturally cluster immediately after the subordinating conjunction да (the second-position host). In affirmative purpose clauses, the auxiliary form (бих, би, бисмо...) heads this clitic group, followed by any short object or reflexive pronouns: да бих се вратио, да би га видео.

Crucially, in negative purpose clauses with the potential, clitics like се or object pronouns must follow да immediately and precede не би(х): да + clitic + не би(х) + participle (e.g., да се не бих вратио, да га не би видео, да се не би прехладио). Placing clitics after не би (such as *да не би се прехладио) is ungrammatical.

Examples (4)

  1. Устао је веома рано да би стигао на први јутарњи воз.

    He got up very early in order to catch the first morning train.

    Word by Word: He-got-up is very early that would-3sg he-caught on first morning train.

    The third-person singular auxiliary 'би' agrees with the masculine singular subject, followed by the masculine participle 'стигао'.

  2. Да бисмо боље разумели проблем, морамо детаљно анализирати све податке.

    In order for us to better understand the problem, we must analyze all data in detail.

    Word by Word: That would-1pl better we-understood problem, we-must in-detail to-analyze all data.

    When inverted to the beginning of the sentence, 'да бисмо' is standard for expressing purpose.

  3. Оставила сам му поруку на столу да би знао где се налазимо.

    I left him a note on the table so that he would know where we were.

    Word by Word: Left am to-him note on table that would-3sg he-knew where REFL we-find.

    Shows a switch in subject between clauses: 'I left a note... so that he would know'.

  4. Сваки дан учим српски да бих лакше разговарала са пријатељима.

    I study Serbian every day in order to talk to my friends more easily.

    Word by Word: Every day I-study Serbian that would-1sg more-easily spoken-fem with friends.

    A female speaker uses the 1st person singular auxiliary 'бих' along with the feminine participle 'разговарала'.

Common Mistakes

  • Freezing the auxiliary as invariant "би" across all persons.

    Учимо да би положили испит.
    Учимо да бисмо положили испит.

    In standard Serbian, the auxiliary must conjugate to agree with the subject in person and number ('бисмо' for 1st person plural 'ми').

  • Using "да би(х)" after verbs of wanting or modal verbs instead of a complement clause.

    Желим да бих путовао.
    Желим да путујем.

    Verbs of desire and modals require complement clauses with present tense ('да путујем'), not a purpose clause with 'да бих'.

  • Mixing 'да бих' with a present-tense verb.

    Отишао сам у продавницу да бих купим хлеб.
    Отишао сам у продавницу да бих купио хлеб.

    After 'да бих' or 'да би' the verb is the past participle: 'да бих купио'. The present goes with plain 'да' ('да купим'), which is a separate, equally correct way to state purpose.

How It Connects

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

да бих / да биLevel 3Purpose with the Conditional

Learn This First

To express purpose with 'да бих / да би', you need to know how purpose clauses work conceptually (starting with 'да + present') and how to conjugate verbs in the conditional (потенцијал) with appropriate person and participle agreement.

Words in This Pattern

дабити