бавити се / управљати + Instrumental

Verb-Governed Instrumental

Level 4Sounds Like instrumental uz baviti se; upravl̂ati

Certain Serbian verbs take a direct semantic complement in the instrumental case without the preposition с/са. Most notably, бавити се (to engage in, deal with, work in) and управљати (to steer, control, manage) require bare instrumental nouns as their grammatical objects.

How It Works

Verb Government: Instrumental as an Obligatory Object

Direct objects in Serbian appear in the accusative case with typical transitive verbs. In contrast, reflexives like бавити се and verbs of control like управљати exhibit specific verb government (глаголска рекција) that demands an indirect complement in the bare instrumental case (неправи / неакузативски објекат):

  • Бавити се + instrumental: to pursue, engage in, or do for a living or hobby (e.g., profession, craft, sport, science).
  • Управљати + instrumental: in the sense of managing, steering, running, or operating (e.g., an enterprise, a vehicle, a machine), this verb functions intransitively and governs an instrumental object. Note that in a distinct, directional meaning ('to direct or aim something towards', such as управљати поглед / пажњу према некоме), управљати can take an accusative direct object; however, when denoting control, leadership, or piloting, the bare instrumental is mandatory.

Other related verbs following this instrumental-governing pattern include руководити (to direct/lead), владати (to rule/command), and располагати (to have at one's disposal).

Key Structural Distinctions

  • No Preposition: Do not use с / са. The preposition с / са signifies accompaniment or partnership (e.g., разговарам са сестром). With бавити се and управљати, the noun phrase is the verb-governed semantic complement, never an accompanying partner.
  • Bare Object vs. Instrument: While means/instrument is typically an optional adverbial modifier (пишем оловком — "I write with a pencil"), with these verbs the instrumental noun is a mandatory complement required to complete the clause (*Она се бави is incomplete on its own).
  • Interrogative Pronouns: To ask what someone pursues or manages, use the bare instrumental question word: Чиме се бавите? ("What do you do / What are you involved in?") rather than *Шта се бавите?. When asking about people (animate complements governed by verbs like руководити or управљати), use the animate instrumental pronoun Ким / Киме (e.g., Ким(е) руководи?).

Morphology Recap

Remember standard endings for both the singular and plural instrumental:

  • Singular:
    • Masculine/Neuter hard stems: -ом (спортом, возилом)
    • Masculine and neuter soft stems: -ем (возачем, мењачем, предузећем)
    • Feminine on -а: -ом (музиком, фирмом)
    • Feminine consonant stems: -ју / -и (уметношћу)
  • Plural: Instrumental plural forms are extremely common with activities and systems:
    • Masculine and neuter nouns: -има (спортовима, пројектима, возилима, системима)
    • Feminine nouns on -а: -ама (финансијама, фирмама, машинама)
    • Feminine consonant stems: -има (стварима, делатностима)

Examples (4)

  1. Чиме се бавите у слободно време? — Бавим се фотографијом.

    What do you do in your free time? — I do photography.

    Word by Word: With-what [self] you-engage in free time? I-engage [self] with-photography.

    The question uses the bare instrumental pronoun чиме, and the answer uses the bare feminine instrumental noun фотографијом.

  2. Директорка већ десет година успешно управља овим предузећем.

    The director has been successfully running this company for ten years.

    Word by Word: Director already ten years successfully manages this-instrumental enterprise-instrumental.

    The neuter demonstrative and noun phrase (овим предузећем) is governed in the bare instrumental by управља.

  3. Возач није успео да управља возилом по оваквој поледици.

    The driver was not able to control the vehicle on this kind of black ice.

    Word by Word: Driver not succeeded to manages vehicle-instrumental on such black-ice.

    Возилом is in the bare instrumental case because управљати requires it when referring to operating a machine or vehicle.

  4. Мој брат се професионално бави спортом.

    My brother does sports professionally.

    Word by Word: My brother [self] professionally engages sport-instrumental.

    The masculine noun спорт takes the regular hard instrumental singular ending -ом without any preposition.

Common Mistakes

  • Inserting the preposition с / са before the object.

    Бавим се са спортом.
    Бавим се спортом.

    Learners often translate literally from English ('deal with') or German ('beschäftigen mit'). In Serbian, governed instrumental objects never take с/са.

  • Using the accusative case instead of the instrumental.

    Она успешно управља велику компанију.
    Она успешно управља великом компанијом.

    Unlike English 'manage a company', управљати does not take a direct accusative complement; it strictly governs the bare instrumental.

  • Using 'шта' instead of 'чиме' when asking questions with бавити се.

    Шта се бавиш?
    Чиме се бавиш?

    Because бавити се requires an instrumental complement, the question word must also be in the instrumental (чиме), never the nominative/accusative (шта).

How It Connects

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бавити се / управљати + InstrumentalLevel 4Verb-Governed Instrumental

Learn This First

To use the instrumental case as a verb-governed complement (such as with 'бавити се' or 'управљати'), learners must already understand how to form the instrumental case (specifically without prepositions) and how inherently reflexive verbs with 'се' function.

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Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

бавитиуправљати