~6 min · 11 exercises

Part of the unit “Sport: how and how often”

Прилози

adverbs

Overview

Adverbs modify a verb, adjective or another adverb, telling how, when or where something happens: Она пева лепо. (She sings nicely.) Most manner adverbs need no separate vocabulary - they reuse a form you already know.

Formation - the neuter adjective form

A manner adverb is identical to the neuter singular nominative form of the corresponding adjective, the same -о/-е form comparison-of-adjectives-a2 uses for its neuter row: добар (good) → добро (well), лош (bad) → лоше (badly). Context tells the two apart - an adjective agrees with a noun, an adverb attaches to a verb.

-ски adverbs - languages and manner

Nationality and language adjectives form adverbs with -ски, used with no preposition: Говорим српски. (I speak Serbian.) The same suffix also builds manner adverbs from other adjectives: пријатељски (in a friendly way).

Comparison of adverbs

An adverb's comparative and superlative are simply the corresponding adjective's neuter comparative and superlative - no new machinery beyond comparison-of-adjectives-a2: добро → боље → најбоље, irregular like добар → бољи.

Core time and place adverbs

A handful of high-frequency adverbs don't come from any adjective and are simply vocabulary: сад (now), увек (always), ту (right here, nearby), тамо (over there, farther away), горе (up, upstairs), доле (down, downstairs). Често (often) looks like one of these but isn't - it's the regular adverb of чест (frequent), exactly like добар → добро.

Tables

Adjective → manner adverb
Adjective (masc.)	Adverb
добар	добро
брз	брзо
леп	лепо
тих	тихо
лош	лоше

Examples

Она пева лепо.

She sings nicely.

Manner adverb - the adjective's neuter form.

Он трчи брзо.

He runs fast.

брзо modifies the verb трчи, not a noun.

Говорим српски.

I speak Serbian.

-ски language adverb, no preposition.

Она пева лепше него ја.

She sings better than I do.

Comparative adverb, same него comparison as comparison-of-adjectives-a2.

Увек устајем рано.

I always get up early.

Core time adverb увек.

Често идем у биоскоп.

I often go to the cinema.

Core frequency adverb често, from the adjective чест (frequent).

Ходи ту, а не тамо.

Come here, not over there.

ту (nearby) vs. тамо (farther away).

Стан ми је горе, гаража доле.

My apartment is upstairs, the garage is downstairs.

Core place adverbs горе/доле.

Сад немам времена.

I don't have time right now.

Core time adverb сад.

Compared with…

English builds manner adverbs with the suffix -ly (quick → quickly, nice → nicely) - unrelated to Serbian's strategy of reusing the neuter adjective form. English comparison is often analytic, adding more/most as separate words, where Serbian always changes the adverb's own ending - the same synthetic pattern already learned for adjectives.

Serbian

Она пева лепше него ја.

English adds more as a separate word; Serbian changes the adverb's own ending.

English

She sings more nicely than I do.

Common mistakes

Wrong

По-српски говорим добро.

Right

Добро говорим српски.

The Serbian language adverb takes no prefix at all - just the bare -ски form, and no preposition either.

Wrong

Он је брзо човек.

Right

Он је брз човек.

Only the adjective form (брз/брза/брзо, agreeing with the noun) can modify a noun directly; the adverb брзо modifies a verb instead, as in „Он трчи брзо.“

Wrong

Она пева више лепо него ја.

Right

Она пева лепше него ја.

Like adjectives, Serbian adverbs build their comparative by changing their own ending, never by adding a separate word like више.

Tips & exceptions

Tips

Unsure of a manner adverb? Take the adjective's neuter singular nominative form - it's identical, no separate memorization needed.
-ски adverbs for languages and nationalities never take a preposition, unlike English in Serbian.
Adverb comparison always mirrors the corresponding adjective's neuter comparative/superlative exactly - memorize one, get the other for free.

Exceptions

добро's comparative боље is irregular/suppletive, not *добрије - exactly mirroring the adjective добар → бољи pair from comparison-of-adjectives-a2.
Ту and тамо both loosely translate there, but ту marks something close by or already established in the conversation, while тамо marks something farther away - the choice depends on relative distance, not a fixed English gloss.

Summary

Serbian manner adverbs reuse the neuter singular adjective form (добро, брзо, лепо, често). Language and nationality adverbs take the bare suffix -ски with no preposition (Говорим српски). Adverb comparison mirrors the corresponding adjective's neuter comparative/superlative exactly (боље, брже, лепше). A handful of high-frequency time/place adverbs - сад, увек, ту, тамо, горе, доле - are simply vocabulary. English forms adverbs with -ly, an unrelated pattern, and often compares analytically with more.