LingoflyPočeo je da radi: phase verbs, after which no to-form survives
The English "started to work" sounds bookish and rare in Serbian. Living Serbian says počeo je da radi. For example: “Почели (počeli) смо (smo) да (da) радимо (radimo) у (u) седам (sedam) и (i) завршили (Završili) посао (posao) у (u) пет” (pet) — We started working at seven and finished the job at five. A rule from the Serbian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
The English "started to work" sounds bookish and rare in Serbian. Living Serbian says počeo je da radi.
The rule is one: after such a verb comes da plus the present. Počeo sam da radim, nastavio je da priča, prestali smo da čekamo.
And the person in the second half matches the first. Počeo sam da radim, never "da radi". That is the main source of first-year slips.
So behave početi, nastaviti, prestati, krenuti, uspeti and planirati. But prekinuti, obustaviti and završiti take a noun instead: prekinuo je razgovor, završili smo posao.
Table
| the verb | what follows it | example | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| početi | da + present | počeo je da radi | he started working |
| nastaviti | da + present | nastavio je da priča | he kept talking |
| prestati | da + present | prestao je da puši | he quit smoking |
| uspeti | da + present | uspeo je da završi | he managed to finish |
| umeti | da + present | ne ume da objasni | he cannot explain |
| prekinuti | the object form | prekinuo je razgovor | he cut the talk short |
| obustaviti | the object form | obustavili su radove | they halted the works |
| latiti se | the of-form | latio se posla | he set to work |
By example
How the rule settles in your head
A rule is not memorized from an explanation. It is memorized from an attempt to use it and a mistake — that is why the app delivers it mixed in with words, not as a separate lesson: it resurfaces exactly where you forgot it.
Frequently asked
Počeo je da radi: how does it work in Serbian?
The English "started to work" sounds bookish and rare in Serbian. Living Serbian says počeo je da radi.
What does it look like in a Serbian example sentence?
“Почели (počeli) смо (smo) да (da) радимо (radimo) у (u) седам (sedam) и (i) завршили (Završili) посао (posao) у (u) пет” (pet) (Počeli smo da radimo u sedam i završili posao u pet) — We started working at seven and finished the job at five. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.