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BCSM: use of the imperfect tense | ||
Tags: Serbo-Croatian | Verbs/Conjugation | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4666 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes  Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 1 of 6 25 April 2012 at 11:37pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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According to Wikipedia and some BCSM grammar sites, the language has oficially retained the imperfect tense, but it is mostly confined to the literary language and is not often used in everyday speach in Serbia or Croatia. In Bosnia and Herzegovina however, its use in conversation is more frequent according to the aforementioned sources.
Just how often is it used there and how is it used? If possible, some usage examples would be appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 2 of 6 25 April 2012 at 11:42pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
The aorist is used more often. Both are rare in spoken language. Your best bet to see how it is used is to read something like the Bible (Sveto Pismo), assuming you know the stories, so you'll see how these two tenses are used. The perfect tense is practically replacing the other three past tenses, but you can encounter their use by more educated people. To tell you the truth, just google a particular verb + wiktionary, and you will get under the word entry its conjugations. Among them you'll see the imperfect tense. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Kartof Bilingual Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5067 days ago 391 posts - 550 votes Speaks: English*, Bulgarian*, Spanish Studies: Danish | Message 3 of 6 26 April 2012 at 1:15am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Wow, this honestly comes as a complete shock to me! I was under the impression that Serbo-Croatian made use of either imperfect or aorist for its basic past tense but now that I looked it up, I see that you're right and that that's not the case. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| benzionisrael Triglot Groupie Spain Joined 4666 days ago 79 posts - 142 votes Speaks: English*, Japanese, SpanishB2 | Message 4 of 6 26 April 2012 at 1:28am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Thank you. I´ll try out this Wiktionary site which you recommend. I will look up the imperfect´s conjugations if they are presented on that site. What I would like to ask however is how is the imperfect tense used in educated Serbian or Bosnian? Is it used similarly or identically to the inperfect past tense verbs in Spanish like amaba, bebía o aprendía for example? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 5 of 6 26 April 2012 at 5:10am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Haha. Yeah, I only recently learned the forms, they are so rarely used in spoken language. My sister who is also fluent probably doesn't know them at all. My parents have NEVER used those two tenses in the home, EVER. Of course they know them and probably studied them in school. Probably the only verb I knew the aorist for growing up was the verb biti (to be), because its aorist forms are used coupled with the participle to make the conditional. For all intents and purposes, Serbian spoken language uses the present, the perfect, and the two future tenses. However, more educated people who want to use more formal language, or more isolated people (e.g. rural people, people in Bosnia or the southeastern part of Serbia which is close to Bulgaria) may choose to use the pluperfect, aorist, and imperfect in spoken language. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Merv Bilingual Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5274 days ago 414 posts - 749 votes Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian* Studies: Spanish, French | Message 6 of 6 26 April 2012 at 5:22am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Yes, the aorist and imperfect roughly correspond to the preterite and imperfect, respectively, of Spanish. The key difference is that because Serbian has perfective and imperfective aspect for its verbs, you can only pair aorist to perfective verbs and imperfect to imperfective verbs. If a verb can take either aspect, it can take either of those two tenses, but this is a rare scenario. E.g. kupiti (perfect to buy): ja kupih, ti kupi, on/ona/ono kupi, mi kupismo, vi kupiste, oni/one/ona kupiše kupovati (imperfect to buy): ja kupovah, ti kupovaše, on/ona/ono kupovaše, mi kupovasmo, vi kupovaste, oni/one/ona kupovahu slomiti (perfect to break): ja slomih, ti slomi, on/ona/ono slomi, mi slomismo, vi slomiste, oni/one/ona lupiše lomiti (imperfect to break): ja lomljah, ti lomljaše, on/ona/ono lomljaše, mi lomljasmo, vi lomljaste, oni/one/ona lomljahu There is no aorist for kupovati or lomiti and no imperfect for kupiti or slomiti. However the verb videti (to see) can be both perfect or imperfect: aorist (saw): ja videh, ti vide, on/ona/ono vide, mi videsmo, vi videste, oni/one/ona videše imperfect (was seeing): ja viđah, ti viđaše, on/ona/ono viđaše, mi viđasmo, vi viđaste, oni/one/ona viđahu The curious thing is how closely the two tenses resemble each other. The 2nd and 3rd person singular are identical in both. The first person singular ends with an "h" sound in both cases. And the 1st and 2nd person plural also have parallel "smo" and "ste" endings in both tenses. Edited by Merv on 26 April 2012 at 5:24am 1 person has voted this message useful |
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