Up, up top, from above: Serbian asks about place three times
English asks two questions about place, where and where to, and builds the rest out of prepositions. Serbian keeps three full rows, and each has words of its own. For example: “Одозго се види цео град, а одоздо се чује улица” — From above you can see the whole city, and from below you can hear the street. A rule from the Serbian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
English asks two questions about place, where and where to, and builds the rest out of prepositions. Serbian keeps three full rows, and each has words of its own.
Where: gore, dole, unutra, napolju, ovde, tamo. Where to: nagore, nadole, unutra, napolje, ovamo. The difference is not always visible, but napolju and napolje part ways clearly.
Where from has a prefix of its own: odozgo, odozdo, iznutra, spolja, odavde, otuda. Hearing odo- or iz-, you know the answer is about origin.
The trap is pored: it means both "next to" and "past". The verb decides which. Stojim pored kuće — I stand next to the house. Prošao sam pored kuće — I walked past it.
Table
| where | where to | from where | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| gore | nagore | odozgo | up top, upward, from above |
| dole | nadole | odozdo | down below, downward, from below |
| unutra | unutra | iznutra | inside, inward, from inside |
| napolju | napolje | spolja | outside, out, from outside |
| ovde | ovamo | odavde | here, over here, from here |
| tamo | tamo | otuda | there, over there, from there |
| daleko | daleko | izdaleka | far, into the distance, from afar |
| u daljini | — | — | in the distance |
By example
- Одозго се види цео град, а одоздо се чује улицаOdozgo se vidi ceo grad, a odozdo se čuje ulicaFrom above you can see the whole city, and from below you can hear the street
- Уђи унутра, напољу је хладноUđi unutra, napolju je hladnoCome inside, it is cold out
- Прошао је поред мене и отишао низ улицуProšao je pored mene i otišao niz ulicuHe walked past me and went down the street
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
Up, up top, from above: how does it work in Serbian?
English asks two questions about place, where and where to, and builds the rest out of prepositions. Serbian keeps three full rows, and each has words of its own.
What does it look like in an example sentence Serbian?
“Одозго се види цео град, а одоздо се чује улица” (Odozgo se vidi ceo grad, a odozdo se čuje ulica) — From above you can see the whole city, and from below you can hear the street. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.