Suptilnosti instrumentala
Overview
instrumental-case-a2 covered two uses of the instrumental: the bare case for means/tool, and с/са + instrumental for accompaniment. The bare instrumental - no preposition - also covers several more situations: verbs that govern it as their normal complement, and the route traveled or stretches of time. This lesson works through all three, then closes with one instrumental use Serbian does not have at all.
None of what follows changes the case endings - every form is built exactly the way instrumental-case-a2 already taught. What's new is recognizing more contexts where the bare instrumental applies, with no preposition like с/са to signal it.
Verbs that govern the instrumental
A handful of common verbs simply take the instrumental as their normal complement, with no accompaniment meaning at all: бавити се (to occupy oneself with, already glimpsed in instrumental-case-a2's own exceptions), управљати (to manage, to drive/operate), руководити (to lead, direct), владати (to rule, govern - and, in a common extended sense, to have command of a skill or language), and служити се (to make use of, utilize). The instrumental has to be memorized together with each verb.
Because there is no accompaniment sense here, с/са never appears with these verbs: управља фирмом, never управља са фирмом - the same warning instrumental-case-a2 gave for the bare instrumental of means applies here too.
Instrumental of route, time and duration
The bare instrumental also marks the route along which motion happens: „Ишао је шумом до језера.“ (He walked through the forest to the lake.) reuses exactly the ending verbs-of-motion-b1 taught for ићи, on a noun naming the way rather than the destination. Путем (via, by way of) is common enough that it functions almost like a preposition on its own, especially in set phrases like путем интернета (via the internet).
A second, equally prepositionless use marks a point or stretch of time: ноћу (at night), јутром (in the morning) - and, extending to duration, the same bare instrumental plural verb-aspect-pairs-b1 used unexplained: недељама (for weeks). That earlier недељама was this exact construction, simply not yet named.
No predicative instrumental after бити/постати
Serbian essentially never puts the predicate noun into the instrumental after бити or постати in ordinary usage. The noun stays nominative in every tense, practically without exception: „Он је постао лекар.“, not …лекаром.
This is the one place in this lesson where reaching for the instrumental - reasonable everywhere else here - is practically always avoided. Treat бити/постати + nominative as the pattern to default to, unlike everything else in this lesson.
Tables
| Verb | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| baviti se | Bavi se slikarstvom. | to occupy oneself with, be engaged in |
| upravljati | Upravlja velikom firmom. | to manage, operate |
| rukovoditi | Rukovodi projektom. | to lead, direct |
| vladati | Vlada stranim jezikom. | to have command of (a language) |
| služiti se | Služi se rečnikom. | to make use of, utilize |
Examples
Compared with…
English marks none of these bare-instrumental uses with a case ending, and mostly skips a preposition too - manage a company, lead a project, use a dictionary, at night, for weeks just juxtapose words with no marker at all. Where English does add a word, it is usually a plain direct object for the verb-governed instrumental, or through/along for the route sense - worth noting only because Serbian needs no equivalent word there. The predicate-noun rule, by contrast, matches English structurally (he became a doctor) - the one sub-point here where English needs no adjustment.
Common mistakes
Tips & exceptions
- None of the verb-governed instrumentals in this lesson (бавити се, управљати, руководити, владати, служити се) ever take с/са - bare instrumental only, the same rule instrumental-case-a2 gave for means and tools.
- Недељама, данима, годинама - bare instrumental plurals - mark extended duration with exactly the same no-preposition logic as means; verb-aspect-pairs-b1's недељама was already this construction before it had a name.
- Essentially never reach for the instrumental after бити/постати in ordinary usage, even when a familiar pattern from another language tempts you to - the predicate noun stays nominative, practically without exception.
- Путем breaks the hard-stem -ом pattern instrumental-case-a2 taught (cf. студентом) - this specific noun's instrumental is -ем regardless of its hard final consonant.
- Ноћу uses the rare, formal instrumental ending instrumental-case-a2 flagged as an exception for consonant-final feminine nouns - most other such nouns default to the colloquial genitive/dative/locative-identical form instead.
- Colloquial speech sometimes inserts са before a verb-governed instrumental anyway (particularly руководити са тимом) - the bare instrumental stays the standard, written-register choice to produce actively, the same standard-vs-colloquial framing genitive-of-negation-b1 gave for немати + genitive.
Summary
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