Traps with negation
Four slips that turn a correctly negated Serbian sentence into a wrong one: a negative pronoun standing in for не instead of alongside it, не left as two separate words in front of имати instead of fusing into немати, a negative adverb pulled apart from the не it belongs next to, and не left unfused in front of бити instead of becoming није. Ten minutes of building the right version and catching each mistake before it happens - the last of the series, before the unit's own listening story.
The part of the grammar page this lesson drills — read it here, then use it.
не + verb - the general rule
Put unstressed не directly before the verb: Не гледам телевизију.
Negative pronouns and adverbs require double negation
With a negative pronoun or adverb, keep не on the verb: Нико не зна; Никад никог нигде не видим. Serbian uses both negative words together.
Special cases
Немати is already negative, so do not add не: Немам ништа (‘I have nothing’). Impersonal нема also means ‘there is/are no…’: Нема никог код куће.
| Word | Means | Example |
|---|---|---|
| niko | nobody | Niko ne zna. |
| ništa | nothing | Nemam ništa. |
| nikad(a) | never | Nikad ne kasnim. |
| nigde | nowhere | On nije nigde. |
| nijedan/nijedna/nijedno | not a single one | Nijedan student ne dolazi. |