треба ми / потребан ми је

Needing Something

Level 3Sounds Like treba mi; potreban mi ǰe

In Serbian, instead of saying 'I need X', you literally say 'X is needed to me'. The person who needs something is in the dative case (e.g., ми, ти, нам), while the thing needed is the grammatical subject in the nominative case.

How It Works

To express that you need an object or a person in Serbian, you use an inverted structure where the person experiencing the need is marked with a dative pronoun, and the required item acts as the subject.

1. Everyday Style: требати + Dative
The verb требати takes a dative experiencer clitic (ми, ти, му, јој, нам, вам, им). Unlike its modal impersonal usage with other verbs (e.g., треба да идем), when требати takes a noun, it agrees with that noun in number and past gender:

  • Singular: Треба ми нова оловка. (I need a new pencil.)
  • Plural: Требају ми нове оловке. (I need new pencils.)
  • Past: Требао ми је савет. (I needed advice.) / Требала ми је помоћ. (I needed help.)

2. Formal Style: потребан + бити + Dative
The adjective потребан combined with бити is common in administration, professional correspondence, and written requests. Because потребан is an adjective, it must agree with the subject in gender and number:

  • Masc. sg: Потребан ми је речник.
  • Fem. sg: Потребна ми је помоћ.
  • Neut. sg: Потребно ми је време.
  • Plural: Потребни су ми кључеви.

3. Enclitic Word Order Notice
Remember Serbian clitic ordering rules: dative pronouns precede the 3rd-person singular auxiliary је (потребан ми је), but follow all other auxiliary forms, including plural су (потребни су ми).

Examples (5)

  1. Треба ми твој број телефона.

    I need your phone number.

    Word by Word: Is-needed to-me your number of-phone.

    Standard everyday expression with a masculine singular subject in the nominative ('број').

  2. Требају ми нове наочаре за читање.

    I need new glasses for reading.

    Word by Word: Are-needed to-me new glasses for reading.

    The verb inflects to the 3rd-person plural ('требају') because 'наочаре' is plural.

  3. Потребна нам је ваша помоћ око документације.

    We need your help with the paperwork.

    Word by Word: Needed to-us is your help around paperwork.

    A formal adjectival construction where 'потребна' agrees with the feminine noun 'помоћ'.

  4. Потребни су ми нови документи за визу.

    I require new documents for the visa.

    Word by Word: Needed are to-me new documents for visa.

    Notice the clitic order: the plural auxiliary 'су' precedes the dative pronoun 'ми'.

  5. Јуче ми је требао твој савет.

    Yesterday I needed your advice.

    Word by Word: Yesterday to-me was needed your advice.

    In the past tense, the active participle agrees in masculine singular ('требао') with 'савет'.

Common Mistakes

  • Putting the needed object into the accusative case like in English.

    Треба ми нову торбу.
    Треба ми нова торба.

    In Serbian, the thing you need is the grammatical subject, so it must stay in the nominative case ('нова торба', not 'нову торбу').

  • Using a nominative subject pronoun instead of a dative experiencer.

    Ја требам кључ.
    Треба ми кључ.

    Standard Serbian strongly disfavors using 'требати' as a transitive verb with a nominative subject ('ја требам'). The experiencer must be in the dative case ('мени' / 'ми').

  • Placing the plural copula 'су' after the dative pronoun.

    Потребни ми су кључеви.
    Потребни су ми кључеви.

    Unlike 3rd-person singular 'је' which follows dative clitics, the plural auxiliary 'су' must precede dative clitics in the enclitic cluster.

How It Connects

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

треба ми / потребан ми јеLevel 3Needing Something

Learn This First

To learn expressing need with 'треба ми' and 'потребан ми је', learners must be comfortable using short dative pronouns ('ми', 'ти', etc.) for the experiencer, as well as predicate adjective constructions with 'бити' to agree properly with the thing needed ('потребан/потребна/потребно').

Words in This Pattern

требатипотребан