~10 min · 12 exercises

Part of the unit “Government & administration: paperwork, offices and official errands”

Složene rečenice - odnosne i zavisne rečenice

complex-sentences

Overview

basic-conjunctions-a1 already showed that а/и/или/али join two independent clauses as equals (coordination), while да/јер/ако/кад attach a dependent clause (subordination). This lesson gives the full set of subordinating conjunctions, plus - new here - relative clauses with који/која/које, which describe a noun the way an adjective would, but with a whole clause instead of one word.

participles-b1 already flagged where this is going: „Serbian has no verb form meaning the one reading - that meaning is expressed with a relative clause instead (онај који чита), never a participle.“ This lesson delivers that construction: wherever an active participle might seem like the reflex reach, Serbian reaches for који + a finite verb instead.

Relative clauses - који/која/које

A relative clause attaches to a noun (the antecedent) and behaves like an adjective in one respect only: gender and number. Који/која/које always agrees with the antecedent's gender and number, never its case. „Видео сам човека који чита књигу.“ - човека is accusative (object of видео сам), but који is nominative, because inside its own clause it is the subject of чита.

The pronoun's case comes entirely from the job it does inside the relative clause itself: subject → nominative, direct object → accusative, recipient → dative, and so on - the same question you'd ask about any other noun phrase. „Ово је књига коју читам.“ - књига is feminine (agreement) and коју is accusative (object of читам inside the relative clause), two independent decisions made at the same time.

Subordinate clauses of time, cause, concession and purpose

Temporal clauses use кад(a) (when) or док (while, as long as) - „Док си спавао, ја сам спремила ручак.“ Causal clauses use јер or зато што (because), both already met in basic-conjunctions-a1. Concessive clauses use иако or мада (although), new at this level, marking a contrast between what happens and what would be expected.

Purpose and objective clauses use да + present - basic-conjunctions-a1 already flagged да as the obligatory infinitive substitute after желети/морати/моћи when the subject stays the same. This lesson extends that to a genuinely different subject: „Желим да дођеш на моју прославу.“ (I want you to come.) Serbian has no infinitive-with-subject construction - да + a present tense agreeing with the new subject is the only option.

Word order and aspect in complex sentences

word-order-enclitics-a2's second-position rule applies separately inside each clause of a complex sentence - a subordinate clause starts its own count from its first stressed word. „Он иде на посао иако је уморан.“ - је is second within иако је уморан, entirely independent of the main clause. A subordinate clause can also precede the main clause, usually set off by a comma: „Иако је уморан, он иде на посао.“

verb-aspect-pairs-b1's habitual-vs-completed test and its perfective-has-no-present-tense-meaning rule both carry over unchanged into temporal clauses: „Кад дођеш, зваћу те.“ uses the perfective present-shaped дођеш for one future arrival, never the futur ће доћи, inside the кад-clause itself.

Tables

The pronoun „koji“ across the cases (masculine singular)
Case	Form	Example
nominativ	koji	Čovek koji čita...
genitiv	koga / kojeg	Prijatelj bez koga ne mogu.
dativ	kome / kojem	Čovek kome verujem...
akuzativ (živo)	koga / kojeg	Čovek koga sam video...
instrumental	kojim	Prijatelj s kojim idem...
lokativ	kome / kojem	Čovek o kome govorimo...

Examples

Video sam čoveka koji čita knjigu.

I saw a man who is reading a book.

који is nominative - subject of чита inside its own clause - regardless of човека's accusative role in the main clause.

Ovo je knjiga koju čitam.

This is the book that I'm reading.

Feminine agreement with књига plus accusative case from читам's object role.

Žena kojoj sam dao knjigu je moja komšinica.

The woman to whom I gave the book is my neighbor.

Dative којој - the recipient role dative-case-a2 taught, now inside a relative clause.

Kad dođeš, zvaću te.

When you arrive, I'll call you.

Perfective present-shaped дођеш after кад - future meaning, verb-aspect-pairs-b1's rule reapplied.

Dok si spavao, ja sam spremila ručak.

While you were sleeping, I made lunch.

док + imperfective for one action running alongside another.

Ostao je kod kuće jer je bio bolestan.

He stayed home because he was sick.

Causal јер, already met in basic-conjunctions-a1.

Iako pada kiša, idemo u šetnju.

Although it's raining, we're going for a walk.

Concessive иако - new at this level.

Želim da dođeš na moju proslavu.

I want you to come to my celebration.

Different subjects: да + present, never an infinitive - the only option in Serbian here.

Knjiga koja je napisana prošle godine postala je bestseler.

The book that was written last year became a bestseller.

A relative clause built around a participial passive - passive-voice-b1's трпни придев inside који је написана.

Compared with…

English's who/whom/which/that barely echo који's full case declension, and even that vestige (whom) has nearly vanished from casual speech - Serbian's case marking on који stays fully productive and cannot be dropped. English also has no equivalent to the да-clause for a different-subject wish: I want you to come uses an infinitive with its own subject, a construction Serbian simply doesn't have - да + a present tense agreeing with the new subject does that job instead.

Serbian

Želim da dođeš na proslavu.

English's infinitive-with-subject (you to come) has no Serbian counterpart - only да + present.

English

I want you to come to the celebration.

Common mistakes

Wrong

Video sam čoveka koga čita knjigu.

Right

Video sam čoveka koji čita knjigu.

који must be nominative here - it is the subject of чита inside the relative clause; the antecedent's accusative role in the main clause is irrelevant to the pronoun's own case.

Wrong

Ovo je knjiga koji čitam.

Right

Ovo je knjiga koju čitam.

коју agrees with feminine књига and is accusative because it is the object of читам inside the relative clause - који читам gets both parts wrong.

Wrong

Kad će doći, zvaću te.

Right

Kad dođeš, zvaću te.

Serbian never uses futur I inside a кад-clause about the future; the perfective present-shaped verb alone (verb-aspect-pairs-b1) already carries that meaning.

Wrong

Želim ti doći na proslavu.

Right

Želim da dođeš na proslavu.

Once the wisher and the wished-for person differ, Serbian requires да + a present tense agreeing with the new subject - never a bare infinitive attached to a separate subject, the trap English's I want you to come sets.

Tips & exceptions

Tips

To find the right case for који, ignore the antecedent's case entirely and ask only what job the pronoun does inside its own clause - subject, object, object of a preposition.
Reach for a relative clause (који + a finite verb) where languages with active participles would use one instead - participles-b1 already noted Serbian has no such form at all.
Never use futur I inside a кад/док/ако clause about the future - a perfective present-shaped verb carries that meaning by itself.

Exceptions

Који has no vocative form, which is never a problem in practice - a relative pronoun is never used to address someone directly.
You may colloquially hear с ким where a relative clause would take с којим - that instrumental ким belongs to the interrogative pronoun ко (who), not to који; the two paradigms share several oblique forms but not this one, so treat с ким here as a loose spoken substitute, not a second correct form of који.
Colloquial speech sometimes substitutes шта for који with an inanimate antecedent ("ствар шта сам купио" instead of the standard "ствар коју сам купио") - recognizable, but nonstandard; avoid it in writing.
Same-subject да-clauses after морати/моћи/желети (Морам да идем) look identical to this lesson's different-subject purpose clauses but were already covered as an infinitive substitute in basic-conjunctions-a1 - this lesson's focus is specifically the different-subject case.

Summary

Serbian builds complex sentences with relative clauses (који/која/које - gender/number from the antecedent, case from the pronoun's own role inside its clause, redeeming participles-b1's forward reference to the active-participle meaning Serbian expresses this way) and subordinate clauses introduced by temporal (кад, док), causal (јер, зато што), concessive (иако, мада) and purposive (да + present, for a different subject) conjunctions. Each clause keeps its own independent second position for enclitics (word-order-enclitics-a2), and verb-aspect-pairs-b1's aspect rules - including no futur I inside a кад/ако clause - apply inside subordinate clauses exactly as in simple ones.