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Showing posts with label Prefixes in Serbian. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Prefixes in Serbian. Show all posts

Friday, October 11, 2019

PO- Prefix with Verbs - Serbian 701

Prefixes in Serbian , Serbian 701
PO- Prefix with Verbs - Serbian 701
One of the common and very productive ways of expanding a verb meaning is the process of "prefixation" in Serbian. While in English this additional meaning is conveyed through use of different tenses or prepositions in phrasal verbs, at a sentence level, in Serbian it is achieved through only one word, at the lexicology level.

Today we are talking about PO- prefix and its meanings.

Meaning of Po- Prefix in Serbian

There are five main meanings of PO- prefix when added to a verb. These are as follows:
  1. making a perfective verb out of an imperfective one: jesti - pojesti
  2. adding up "distributive meaning", often combined with the word "sve": krasti - pokrasti (there will be a special post dedicated to this)
  3. beginning of the action: leteti -  poleteti
  4. spatial meaning (additional meaning "over") : bacati -  pobacati
  5. action which lasts for a long time: živeti - poživeti

Exercise with Po- Prefix in Serbian

Let me add five lists of verbs for which you have to decide which group they belong to:

Can you think of any other examples?

Here are some of my ideas:

  1. pokisnuti
  2. poleteti
  3. pozlatiti
  4. pokrenuti 
  5. polupati
  6. posvađati 
  7. porazbijati
  8. pokrasti



Examples with Po- Prefix in Serbian Literature

Here comes the famous story Sve će to narod pozlatiti by Laza Lazarević, written back in 1881. 




- What is the meaning of the noun ZLATO and verb POzlatiTI?
- What meaning(s) does this prefix add?
- What is the gist of the story?
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Monday, December 13, 2010

Verb Prefixes in Serbian

Prefixes in Serbian ,
Verb Prefixes in Serbian
I'm sure that many eager learners of Serbian are often puzzled by the meaning of prefixes and suffixes which are added to verbs in our language. While English uses different tense aspects (progressive, perfective) and phrasal verbs to express the same meaning, we tend to express aspect at the lexical level - that's why numerous prefixes and suffixes!

I think it's useless to puzzle students by bombarding them with numerous prefixes with one verb stem e.g. izaći, ući, otići, prići, doći etc. especially in one lesson. I think it's more effective to introduce one prefix, with common meaning, applied to the verbs with which students are already familiar with.

That's why I'll introduce the prefix "do-" = similar to English 'to'

1. meaning towards someone or something, or some finishing phase

trčati (run) - dotrčati (run to)
Sima trči (Sima is running)
Sima je trčao (Sima was running)
Sima je dotrčao (Sima has run (to me or some place))

šetati (walk) - došetati (walk to)
Ja šetam (I am walking/I walk)
Ja sam šetala (I was walking)
Došetala sam se do parka (I've walked to the park)
Došetaću se do tebe. (I'll walk to your place)

2. meaning 'additional'

pisati (write) - dopisati (add to what you've written)
Pišem knjigu (I'm writing a book)
Pisao sam pismo. (I was writing a letter)
Dopisao sam komentar (I added a comment)
Dopisao sam još jednu rečenicu (I've written one more sentence)

zidati (build) - dozidati (build some more/build up)
Zidali smo kuću pet godina (we were/have been building the house for five years)
Dozidali smo jednu sobu (we built up one more room)

dati (give) - dodati (add)
Dali su nam tortu (they gave us a cake)
Dodali smo malo šećera(we added a little sugar)
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Thursday, June 10, 2010

Nouns with Prefixes in Serbian

Noun Prefixes , Prefixes in Serbian
Nouns with Prefixes in Serbian
Srpske imenice sa prefiksima

1. BEZ- (meaning of this prefix: 'without')
n.p. (e.g.) beskućnik, bezakonje, bezvlašće

2. ZA- (meaning of this prefix is 'behind')
n.p. zavetrina, zauške, zapećak

3. MEĐU- (meaning 'between', both for time and space)
n.p. međusprat, međuprostor, međuigra

4. NA- (meaning 'on')
n.p. načelnik (head of the dept/institution, literally '0n forehead person'), narečje (dialect)

5. NAD - ('above')
n.p. nadvojvoda, nadbiskup, nadstrešnica

6. NE- ('non')
n.p. neznanje (znanje=knowledge), neuspeh (uspeh=success)

7. NUZ- ('additional')
n.p. nusprostorija, nuspojava

8. PO- ('after, afterwards', 'adoptive')
n.p. pogovor, ponedeljak (after Sunday), pomajka, pobratim, poglavlje, poslastica

9. POD- ('under or sub')
n.p. podnaslov (subtitle), potkošulja (vest), podstanar (tenant), podsvest (subconsciousness)

10. PRA- ('ancestry')
n.p. prababa (great grandma), pradeda (great grandpa), pračovek ('prehistoric man')

11. PRED- ('before', 'front')
n.p. predstraža, predjelo, predvečerje

12. PRI- ('close, near')
n.p. primorje (coastal = close to the see (more)), prikolica, prikrajak, priručnik

13. PROTIV- ('against')
n.p. protivnapad, protivprimer, protivteža, protivusluga

14. RAZ- ('dividing')
n.p. razdoblje, raskršće (krst =cross, crossroads)

15. SA- ('together or with')
n.p. saputnik (putnik=passenger, companion), saborac, sazvučje

16. SU- (similar to 'SA-')
n.p. suosnivač=saosnivač (cofounder), sugrađanin, suvlasnik, suvozač (or nowadays borrowed 'KO', as in kopilot (copilot), koatuor (coauthor)...)

17. U- ('in')
n.p. ukućanin (living 'in house'), ukosnica

18. UZ- (similar to 'along or with')
n.p. uzrečica, uzglavlje

19. O- ('about, around', or sometimes used without any specific meaning)
n.p. ogrlica, okučnica, opušak, ogranak
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