Serbian 401 — one preposition, od, and seven pronouns that have to obey it.
Od always takes the genitive — no exceptions, no thinking required. What does take thinking is which form of the pronoun to use, because Serbian has two sets and only one of them can follow a preposition.
| Nominativ | Genitiv (duži oblik) | Kraći oblik |
|---|---|---|
| ja | mene | me |
| ti | tebe | te |
| on / ono | njega | ga |
| ona | nje | je |
| mi | nas | nas |
| vi | vas | vas |
| oni / one / ona | njih | ih |
After a preposition you always reach for the long form: od mene, never "od me". The short forms are unstressed and can't stand next to od at all.
Two things worth pointing at. First, the plural erases gender — oni, one and ona all become njih, so you can't tell from the pronoun whether it's a room of men or of women.
| akuzativ | genitiv | |
|---|---|---|
| on | njega | njega — isto |
| ona | nju | nje — različito! |
Second: for on the accusative and the genitive are the same word, which lulls you into thinking the cases don't matter. Then ona arrives and they split. Sentence 1 below has both in one line — Odvojio je njega od nje — and it's the clearest illustration in the whole set.
The bracket gives the nominative — you put it into the genitive.
1. Odvojio je njega od . (ona)
2. Odvojile su se od . (mi)
3. Odvojio je tebe od . (mi)
4. Odvojili ste se od . (ja)
5. Odvojile su se od . (on)
6. Odvojile su se od . (ona)
7. Odvojili smo se od . (vi)
8. Odvojili smo se od . (one)
9. Odvojili su se od . (ti)
10. Odvojio je mene od . (ti)
11. Odvojila je vas od . (oni)
12. Odvojio je nju od . (ja)
13. Odvojila je nas od . (vi)
14. Odvojio je mene od . (on)
1. ja → od
2. ti → od
3. on → od
4. ona → od
5. mi → od
6. vi → od
7. oni / one → od
SR (lat): Upisuje se samo zamenica, bez predloga OD. Može latinicom ili ćirilicom.
СР (ћир): Уписује се само заменица, без предлога ОД. Може латиницом или ћирилицом.
EN: Type only the pronoun — OD is already there. Latin or Cyrillic.
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