Subject Pronouns

Subject pronouns (личне заменице у номинативу) identify the subject of a clause or sentence, whether performing an action, experiencing a state, or linked to a description (e.g., Ја сам овде).

1. Paradigm of Nominative Pronouns

• ја — I
• ти — you (singular informal)
• он — he / it (refers to masculine persons or masculine inanimate nouns like сто)
• она — she / it (refers to feminine persons or feminine inanimate nouns like књига)
• оно — it / he / she (used for grammatically neuter nouns, including inanimates like село as well as persons like дете)
• ми — we
• ви — you (plural 'you all' for any group, or polite formal singular)
• они — they (masculine or grammatically mixed groups)
• оне — they (exclusively feminine groups)
• она — they (exclusively neuter plurals, e.g., села)

2. The Pro-Drop Phenomenon
Serbian is a null-subject language. Standard speech drops the pronoun because verb endings clearly indicate the person: instead of saying Ја радим сваки дан, natural speech prefers Радим сваки дан. Including pronouns in every sentence sounds unnatural or self-absorbed to native speakers.

3. When to Explicitly Use Subject Pronouns
Overt pronouns are used deliberately in specific contexts:

• Contrast: Pointing out differences between subjects (e.g., Ја живим у Београду, а он живи у Новом Саду).
• Focus and Emphasis: Highlighting the subject (e.g., Ја то нисам рекао! — I didn't say that!).
• Disambiguation: Clarifying who is meant when switching between different subjects.

4. Politeness and Agreement
The pronoun ви is used to address elders, strangers, and superiors politely. In formal letters and direct correspondence, it is often capitalized as Ви (and Ваш). When using formal ви to address a single individual, finite verbs take plural agreement (e.g., Да ли Ви радите овде?). In past tenses, the participle takes masculine plural agreement (-ли) even when addressing a woman respectfully (e.g., Да ли сте Ви потписали, госпођо?).