Regular Present Tense

Level 1Sounds Like prezent pravilnih glagola

The Serbian present tense (презент) is formed by attaching personal endings directly to the verb's present stem. Regular verbs fall into three main classes based on their stem vowel: A-class (-ам / -ају), I-class (-им / -е), and E-class (-ем / -у). It covers both English simple present ("I read") and continuous present ("I am reading").

How It Works

The present tense (презент) is synthetic (one word) and serves three everyday functions:
1. Ongoing actions: Describing what is happening right now (Сада учим – "I am studying now"). Note that only imperfective verbs can express an ongoing action at the moment of speech in independent clauses.
2. Habitual facts: Everyday routines or general truths (Свако јутро пијем кафу – "Every morning I drink coffee").
3. Scheduled near future: Events fixed in the immediate calendar when accompanied by a time adverb (Сутра путујемо – "We travel tomorrow").

The Three Regular Verb Conjugations:
• A-class (-ам / -ају): Verbs like читати (to read) keep -а- across the entire paradigm: читам, читаш, чита, читамо, читате, читају.
• I-class (-им / -е): Verbs like радити (to work) use -и- for singular and first/second plural, but replace -и- with -е in the 3rd person plural: радим, радиш, ради, радимо, радите, раде.
• E-class (-ем / -у): Verbs like писати (to write) or пити (to drink) use -е- across the singular and first/second plural, and end in -у in the 3rd person plural. Even when the present stem ends in the consonant /j/ (such as пиј-), the ending is regular -у: пишем, пишеш, пише, пишемо, пишете, пишу and пијем, пијеш, пије, пијемо, пијете, пију.

Key Usage Rules:
• No continuous auxiliary: Do not use the verb be to form progressive sentences (e.g., "I am reading" is simply Читам, never *Ја сам читам).
• Subject omission: Because endings reveal person and number, subject pronouns are usually dropped (pro-drop) unless needed for contrast or emphasis.
• Negation: Negating a present verb is regular verbs' standard pattern: place the particle не directly before the verb as a separate word (e.g., не читам, не радим). Note that only three verbs fuse with не in the present tense: нисам, немам, and нећу (the form немој also fuses, but it is an imperative verb form, not present tense).

Examples (4)

  1. Свако јутро читам новине и пијем чај.

    Every morning I read the newspaper and drink tea.

    Word by Word: Every morning I-read newspapers and I-drink tea.

    Shows the 1st person singular of an A-class verb (читам) and an E-class verb (пијем) describing an everyday habit.

  2. Ана и Марко вредно раде и уче српски језик.

    Ana and Marko work hard and study the Serbian language.

    Word by Word: Ana and Marko diligently work and study Serbian language.

    Demonstrates the 3rd person plural ending -е for I-class verbs (раде, уче) agreeing with a compound subject.

  3. Често путујемо у иностранство током лета.

    We often travel abroad during the summer.

    Word by Word: Often we-travel to abroad during summer.

    Demonstrates the 1st person plural ending -мо with a dropped subject pronoun.

  4. Шта сада пишеш?

    What are you writing right now?

    Word by Word: What now you-write?

    Illustrates how the simple present translates continuous English "are you writing" without any extra auxiliary.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding the verb "бити" (to be) to translate English "am/is/are doing"

    Ја сам читам занимљиву књигу.
    Читам занимљиву књигу.

    Serbian has no continuous auxiliary verb. The simple present form "читам" expresses both "I read" and "I am reading".

  • Using the wrong 3rd person plural ending (-у or -ију instead of -е) for I-class verbs

    Они раду у канцеларији.
    Они раде у канцеларији.

    For I-class verbs, the 3rd person plural ending replaces -и- with -е (раде, уче, говоре), not -у or -ију.

  • Overusing subject pronouns in every sentence

    Ја радим у школи и ја учим језик сваки дан.
    Радим у школи и учим језик сваки дан.

    Serbian verb suffixes clearly show person and number. Constantly repeating "ја" sounds unnatural unless contrasting distinct people.

How It Connects

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

Regular Present TenseLevel 1

Learn This First

To conjugate regular verbs correctly in the present tense, learners need to know the subject pronouns in the nominative case, which define grammatical person and number (e.g., ја, ти, он/она/оно).

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

And 4 more in the full list.