натерати / наговорити + да + Clause

Getting Someone to Act

Level 4Sounds Like naterati; nagovoriti + da

Use натерати (to force/compel) or наговорити (to coax/persuade) with a person in the accusative case, followed by да + present tense: Натерао ме је да потпишем (He made me sign).

How It Works

Expressing causation and persuasion in Serbian uses transitive verbs governing an embedded clause introduced by да:

1. Meanings and Nuances
• Натерати (imperfective натеривати, also base imperfective терати): means to force, compel, or make someone act. It implies coercive force, authority, or overcoming substantial resistance. Asserting натерао сам га да оде entails that he actually went.
• Наговорити (imperfective наговарати): means to coax, talk into, or persuade. It involves verbal encouragement or peer pressure, often with the nuance of convincing someone to do something risky, mischievous, or contrary to their prior intentions.
• Both verbs can also take an alternative prepositional frame with на + акузатив followed by a noun phrase instead of a clause (e.g. натерати га на признање 'force him into a confession', наговорити пријатеља на путовање 'talk a friend into a trip').

2. Case Government (Accusative Only)
Both verbs strictly take a direct object in the accusative case (or short pronouns: ме, те, га, је, нас, вас, их):
• Натерао га је... (He made him...) [NOT: *му је]
• Наговорили су нас... (They persuaded us...)

3. Agreement in the Subordinate Clause (Object Control)
This is an object-control construction: the verb in the dependent clause agrees in person and number with the accusative object of the main clause. Note that clitics, negation, and adverbs routinely intervene between да and the verb:
• Ја сам те натерао да позовеш лекара. (I made you call the doctor. — те is 2nd person singular, so позовеш is 2nd person singular).
• Наговорио га је да му се јави. (He talked him into getting in touch with him. — the clitics му се stand directly between да and јави).
• Натерали су нас да не идемо тамо. (They made us not go there. — negative particle не precedes the verb).

4. Serbian Syntax vs. Other Languages
Unlike English, which uses bare or to-infinitives (made him go, persuaded him to leave), modern standard Serbian requires a finite clause with the да + present construction. An infinitive complement (such as *натерао га је доћи) is ungrammatical.

Examples (4)

  1. Једва смо га натерали да оде код лекара.

    We barely managed to make him go to the doctor.

    Word by Word: Barely auxiliary-are him made that he-goes to doctor.

    The short accusative pronoun га refers to the causee, and the verb оде agrees with him in the 3rd person singular.

  2. Другови су га наговорили да побегне са часа.

    His friends talked him into skipping class.

    Word by Word: Friends auxiliary-are him persuaded that he-flees from class.

    Наговорити highlights verbal persuasion, frequently towards something illicit or questionable like cutting class.

  3. Нико ме не може натерати да променим мишљење.

    No one can force me to change my mind.

    Word by Word: Nobody me not can force that I-change opinion.

    In the negative clause, the accusative clitic ме controls the 1st person singular verb променим.

  4. Она нас је наговорила да купимо карте за концерт.

    She persuaded us to buy tickets for the concert.

    Word by Word: She us auxiliary-is persuaded that we-buy tickets for concert.

    The pronoun нас is 1st person plural, so the verb in the dependent clause is купимо (1st person plural).

Common Mistakes

  • Using the dative case instead of the accusative for the person affected

    Натерао сам му да призна истину.
    Натерао сам га да призна истину.

    Learners often mix this up with verbs of commanding like наредити (which takes the dative). Both натерати and наговорити strictly require the accusative case (га, not му).

  • Calquing English infinitives directly into Serbian

    Наговорио га је потписати уговор.
    Наговорио га је да потпише уговор.

    Standard Serbian object-control structures require a finite clause introduced by да + present tense, rather than an infinitive complement.

  • Matching the subordinate verb with the main subject instead of the causee

    Натерао сам те да сам урадио то.
    Натерао сам те да урадиш то.

    The verb after да must agree with the object who actually performs the action (те -> 2nd person singular урадиш), not the subject who applied the pressure.

How It Connects

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

натерати / наговорити + да + ClauseLevel 4Getting Someone to Act

Learn This First

To use 'натерати' and 'наговорити', learners need to be able to mark the influenced person as an accusative direct object (often using clitic pronouns) and express the resulting action using a 'да' + present tense complement clause.

Words in This Pattern

натератинаговоритида