и поред + Genitive

Despite a Noun Phrase

Level 4Sounds Like i pored + genitiv

Use и поред + genitive noun phrase to express concession ("despite / in spite of"). It introduces an obstacle or contrary circumstance that did not prevent the main action.

How It Works

The expression и поред is a frequent and fully standard way to express concession across neutral, conversational, academic, and journalistic registers in Serbian.

Key Grammatical Rules:

  • Case Government: Always governs the genitive case. For example: и поред великог труда (despite great effort).
  • Role of the Particle 'и': In general, keeping the intensifying particle и is crucial for regular nouns to distinguish concession ("despite") from physical proximity ("beside / next to") or addition ("in addition to / besides") expressed by поред (e.g., поред кише usually reads as "in addition to the rain", while и поред кише means "despite the rain"). However, bare поред can also carry a concessive meaning when combined with totality quantifiers like сав or сви (e.g., поред свег труда, поред свих напора, поред свега тога).
  • Correlative Pairing: In complex sentences, the concessive phrase introduced by и поред is very frequently reinforced in the main clause by the adversative particle ипак (e.g., И поред лошег времена, ипак смо стигли на време. — "Despite bad weather, we still arrived on time.").
  • Contrast with упркос: While и поред takes the genitive, its close synonym упркос normatively requires the dative case (e.g., упркос лошем времену vs. и поред лошег времена).
  • Attaching to Clauses: Because и поред is a preposition rather than a subordinating conjunction like иако, you cannot attach a finite verb phrase directly to it. You must insert the pronominal correlative phrase тога што: и поред тога што... ("despite the fact that...").

Examples (4)

  1. И поред лошег времена, публика је остала до краја концерта.

    Despite the bad weather, the audience stayed until the end of the concert.

    Word by Word: And beside bad weather, audience aux stayed until end of-concert.

    Shows 'и поред' governing masculine/neuter genitive singular adjectives and nouns ('лошег времена').

  2. И поред свих препрека, успели су да заврше пројекат на време.

    Despite all the obstacles, they managed to finish the project on time.

    Word by Word: And beside all obstacles, succeeded aux that finish project on time.

    Shows 'и поред' followed by a genitive plural noun phrase ('свих препрека').

  3. Наставио је да ради и поред великог умора.

    He continued to work despite great fatigue.

    Word by Word: Continued aux that works and beside great fatigue.

    Demonstrates 'и поред' placed in the second clause governing the masculine genitive singular ('великог умора').

  4. И поред тога што је био веома уморан, дошао је на састанак.

    Despite the fact that he was very tired, he came to the meeting.

    Word by Word: And beside that what aux was very tired, came aux to meeting.

    Shows how 'и поред тога што' links a full verbal subordinate clause to express concession.

Common Mistakes

  • Attaching a finite verb clause directly to 'и поред' without 'тога што'

    И поред падала је киша, отишли смо у шетњу.
    И поред тога што је падала киша, отишли смо у шетњу.

    'и поред' is a preposition and cannot govern a finite clause directly. Use 'и поред тога што' for verbal clauses or use a pure noun phrase ('и поред кише').

  • Using the dative case instead of the genitive by confusion with 'упркос'

    И поред лошем времену, изашли смо напоље.
    И поред лошег времена, изашли смо напоље.

    While 'упркос' takes the dative, 'и поред' strictly requires the genitive case ('лошег времена').

  • Leaving out 'и', which changes the meaning from 'despite' to 'besides'.

    Different MeaningПоред упозорења лекара, наставио је да тренира.
    И поред упозорења лекара, наставио је да тренира.

    'Поред упозорења лекара' is correct Serbian, but it means 'in addition to the doctor's warning' (or 'next to'). For 'despite', add 'и': 'и поред упозорења лекара'.

How It Connects

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

и поред + GenitiveLevel 4Despite a Noun Phrase

Learn This First

To use 'и поред + генитив' successfully, learners must understand how prepositions govern the genitive case (specifically the preposition 'поред') and be familiar with concessive meaning as introduced by clause-level conjunctions like 'иако'.

Words in This Pattern

поред