Stress and short words in a sentence
Ten minutes of the rule that decides where a short word like ми, га or ли can stand: never first, always leaning on the stressed word before it. Build three sentences that put an enclitic in its place, hear two short phrases that do the same said aloud, and catch the mistake every beginner makes with ли.
The part of the grammar page this lesson drills — read it here, then use it.
Rule 2 - short words that lean on the word before them (enclitics)
Some short words have no stress of their own. They lean on the stressed word before them and sound like its tail: in Дај ми то and Видим га сваки дан, the small words ми and га are not stressed. These words are called enclitics. Like the short form of бити covered earlier, an enclitic can never begin a sentence or stand alone.
The core forms are in the table below: the short forms of бити, the short personal pronouns, the reflexive се, and the question particle ли. When two enclitics land next to each other, they cluster in a fixed order right after the first stressed word, as in Он јој је пријатељ (јој comes before је).
| Kind | Words |
|---|---|
| Short forms of biti | sam, si, je, smo, ste, su |
| Short personal pronouns | me, te, ga, je, ju, nas, vas, ih, mi, ti, mu, joj, nam, vam, im |
| Particle and reflexive pronoun | li, se |