Adjectives After Be

Level 1Sounds Like predikatski pridev: kuća ǰe lepa

In Serbian, to say something 'is [adjective]', state the subject, add the linking verb 'to be' (је, су, etc.), and end with an adjective that matches the subject in gender and number.

How It Works

When describing a quality or characteristic of a subject, Serbian uses a nominal predicate construction, typically structured as Subject + Copula + Adjective (or with fronted emphasis: Adjective + Copula + Subject).

1. Mandatory Copula:
The present tense forms of бити у презенту (је, су, сам, etc.) must never be omitted in standard declarative sentences:

  • Кућа је лепа. (The house is beautiful.) — Not: *Кућа лепа.

2. Agreement Rules:
The adjective must match the subject in:

  • Gender: Feminine (-а), Neuter (-о/-е), and Masculine singular (canonical short indefinite zero ending -ø: леп). In standard Serbian, qualitative masculine singular adjectives in the predicate typically appear in the short form ending in a consonant (e.g., standard Град је леп rather than Град је лепи, though forms in -и are standard for adjectives that only have definite forms, such as мали, relational adjectives in -ски, comparatives like лепши, and in everyday speech). Masculine plural adjectives take -и (Градови су лепи).
  • Fleeting A: In the masculine singular indefinite form of many adjectives, the vowel -а- inherently appears between the stem-final consonants (e.g., добар vs. fem. добра; паметан vs. fem. паметна; хладан vs. fem. хладна), whether placed before a noun or after the copula.
  • Number: Singular or Plural.
  • Case: Always the nominative case.

Examples by gender:

  • Masculine: Град је леп. (The city is beautiful.) / Дан је хладан. (The day is cold.)
  • Feminine: Кућа је лепа. (The house is beautiful.) / Кафа је хладна. (The coffee is cold.)
  • Neuter: Село је лепо. (The village is beautiful.) / Пиво је хладно. (The beer is cold.)
  • Plural: Градови су лепи; Куће су лепе; Села су лепа.

3. Negation:
To say something is not a certain way, use the fused negative forms of 'to be' (није, нису, etc.) via verb negation:

  • Кућа није лепа. (The house is not beautiful.)
  • Књиге нису скупе. (The books are not expensive.)

4. Word Order:
The affirmative forms (је, су) are enclitics and obey Wackernagel's Law—they cannot stand first and must occupy the second syntactic position after the first phrase or stressed word. While neutral word order is Кућа је лепа, placing the adjective first for emphasis is very natural and fully complies with clitic placement: Лепа је кућа (Beautiful is the house!). Unlike affirmative clitics, the negative forms (није, нису) are stressed words and can freely open a sentence (e.g., Није кућа лепа...).

Examples (4)

  1. Кућа је лепа.

    The house is beautiful.

    Word by Word: House is beautiful.

    The feminine singular noun 'кућа' takes the 3rd person singular verb 'је' and the feminine singular adjective 'лепа'.

  2. Овај град је леп и чист.

    This city is beautiful and clean.

    Word by Word: This city is beautiful and clean.

    The masculine noun 'град' agrees with masculine singular predicate adjectives 'леп' and 'чист'.

  3. Књиге нису скупе.

    The books are not expensive.

    Word by Word: Books are-not expensive.

    The plural feminine noun 'књиге' pairs with the negative copula 'нису' and the feminine plural adjective 'скупе'.

  4. Мој стан је веома мали.

    My apartment is very small.

    Word by Word: My apartment is very small.

    Adverbs of degree like 'веома' can sit right before the predicate adjective.

Common Mistakes

  • Omitting the copula verb 'је' or 'су' under native language influence.

    Кућа лепа.
    Кућа је лепа.

    Unlike languages such as Russian or Arabic, standard Serbian strictly requires the verb 'to be' (је/су) in present-tense descriptive clauses.

  • Failing to match the predicate adjective to the feminine or neuter subject.

    Ова соба је велики.
    Ова соба је велика.

    The adjective must agree with the subject's gender. 'Соба' is feminine, so the adjective must take the feminine ending '-а' ('велика'), not the masculine form ('велики').

  • Placing the clitic 'је' at the very beginning of a sentence.

    Је кућа лепа?
    Да ли је кућа лепа?

    The short form 'је' is an enclitic and cannot stand first. To ask a question, use 'Да ли је...' or inverted tonic forms like 'Је ли...'.

How It Connects

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Adjectives After BeLevel 1

Learn This First

To form sentences with a predicate adjective such as 'Кућа је лепа', you need to know present-tense forms of the verb 'бити', understand the subject in the nominative case, and know how singular adjectives agree in gender and number in the nominative.

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бити