Složenije zavisne rečenice - odnosne, dopusne i namerne
Overview
complex-sentences-b1 built the core machinery: relative clauses with који/која/које (gender/number from the antecedent, case from its own role in the clause), and subordinate clauses of time, cause, concession (иако, мада) and purpose (да + present). This lesson extends all three: a possessive relative pronoun and prepositional relatives, stronger and more formal concessive connectors, and the literary да би alternative to да for purpose.
None of this replaces complex-sentences-b1 - који, иако and да + present remain the default, everyday choices. What's new is the fuller B2 toolkit, common in news, books and anything beyond casual conversation.
Relative clauses beyond који - чији and prepositional relatives
questions-a1 introduced чији/чија/чије (whose) as a question word agreeing with the noun it modifies. As a relative pronoun, чији works the same way - it agrees with the noun possessed, never the possessor. „Човек чији пас непрестано лаје...“ (The man whose dog keeps barking...) - чији is masculine because пас (dog) is masculine, regardless of the possessor's gender; „Девојка чија мајка ради у болници...“ (The girl whose mother works at a hospital...) shows the same pronoun agreeing with feminine мајка, again ignoring the possessor.
complex-sentences-b1's case table for који showed only bare case forms; real sentences often need a preposition too, and it simply attaches to који like to any other noun phrase, governing its usual case. „Компанија за коју радим...“ (The company I work for...) uses за + accusative; „Клупа на којој седим...“ (The bench I'm sitting on...) uses на + locative - Serbian never strands the preposition the way English does at the end of the clause.
Concessive clauses beyond иако and мада
Иако and мада (both B1) stay the everyday default for although. B2 adds three more formal or emphatic alternatives: без обзира на то што (regardless of the fact that) - без обзира на то да ли when the concession is itself a yes/no question (regardless of whether); и поред тога што (despite the fact that); and чак и ако (even if), which - unlike the other three - is concessive-conditional, hedging against a hypothetical rather than conceding a known fact.
All three longer connectors keep their то/тога piece; dropping it entirely (без обзира пада киша) occurs in very casual speech but is not accepted in standard Serbian. Whichever connector is used, its clause behaves like any other subordinate clause for word order - independent second position (word-order-enclitics-a2), and it can precede or follow the main clause.
Purpose clauses: да + present versus да би + participle
complex-sentences-b1 established да + present as the standard purpose construction, same subject or different: „Дошао сам да ти помогнем.“ Formal and literary Serbian has a second option built on the кондиционал (conditionals-b1): да би + the радни глаголски придев, agreeing in gender/number with the purpose clause's own subject, exactly as any би-form does. „Отишла је раније да би ухватила воз.“ (She left earlier in order to catch the train.) means the same as ...да ухвати воз, just more formal.
One case is not optional: negating a purpose clause requires да не би + participle, never a bare да не + present. „Говорио је тихо да не би пробудио дете.“ (He spoke quietly so as not to wake the child.) - the one place да би's formal alternative is the only natural choice, in speech and writing alike.
Tables
| Type | Example |
|---|---|
| čiji - posed. imenica m. roda | Čovek čiji pas laje... |
| čija - posed. imenica ž. roda | Devojka čija majka radi... |
| čije - posed. imenica sr. roda | Selo čije ime ne znam... |
| predlog + koji (za + akuzativ) | Kompanija za koju radim... |
| predlog + koji (na + lokativ) | Klupa na kojoj sedim... |
| predlog + koji (o + lokativ) | Pisac o kome svi pričaju... |
Examples
Compared with…
English whose shows no agreement at all - it's invariant regardless of either the possessor's or the possessed noun's gender - so чији/чија/чије's agreement pattern needs real practice, not transfer. English also strands prepositions at the end of a relative clause in casual speech (the company I work for), where Serbian always keeps the preposition attached to који at the front. For purpose, English's so that... wouldn't and in order to roughly track the да-не-би/да-би split, but far less systematically - English speakers can use either construction almost anywhere, while Serbian reserves да не би for negation specifically.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- To find чији's correct form, ask what gender the thing owned is, never what gender the owner is - the opposite of the instinct English's invariant whose gives.
- When a preposition would apply to the noun outside the relative clause, keep it and attach it directly to који in the case it governs (за коју, на којој, о коме) - never strand it at the end the way casual English does.
- Да би + participle is optional for an affirmative purpose clause - plain да + present already works - but it becomes the only natural choice once the clause is negated: да не би.
- Colloquial speech sometimes drops на то and says just без обзира што пада киша - common in speech, but keep the full на то што in writing.
- Non-restrictive relative clauses - ones that add extra information about an already-identified noun rather than picking it out - are set off with commas on both sides in writing: „Ова књига, коју сам купио јуче, је занимљива.“ Restrictive ones, which specify which noun is meant, take no comma: „Књига коју читам је занимљива.“ Spoken Serbian doesn't mark the difference audibly, so it's easy to miss in writing.
- Мада and иако remain the neutral, most common concessive conjunctions in everyday speech; без обзира на то што and и поред тога што are typically reserved for more formal or written registers - a preview of this batch's register lesson.
Summary
Opens Focus mode: one exercise at a time, with explanations — either script accepted.
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This lesson is the unit's first step. The grammar, the words and the first guided lesson are open to everyone; the rest of the unit's lessons and its text, dialogue and tasks come with Premium.