LingoflyU pet, za godinu dana, pre pet godina: time and case
Fixing a time means choosing a form several times over. There are few prepositions, but two of them point the opposite way from what you expect, and then the meeting falls through. For example: “Видимо се у среду (Vidimo se u sredu) у (u) пет (pet), не (ne) пре (pre) тога” (toga) — We will meet on Wednesday at five, not before. A rule from the Serbian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
Fixing a time means choosing a form several times over. There are few prepositions, but two of them point the opposite way from what you expect, and then the meeting falls through.
The hour and the day take u: u pet sati, u sredu, u podne. What repeats needs no preposition at all, only an ending: sredom — on Wednesdays, zimi — in winter.
The main trap is za. Za godinu dana means "a year from now", and za pet minuta means "in five minutes". About something already done, the same za means "within": naučio sam za godinu dana.
How long ago takes pre: pre pet godina. The edge of a span takes the of-form: krajem nedelje, početkom meseca. And Serbian almost always adds dana to a span: godinu dana, mesec dana.
Table
| the phrase | the case | example | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| u + object form | hour and day | u pet, u sredu | at five, on Wednesday |
| the with-form | what repeats | sredom, zimi | on Wednesdays, in winter |
| za + object form | after how long | za godinu dana | in a year's time |
| pre + of-form | how long ago | pre pet godina | five years ago |
| pre, posle + of-form | before and after | posle podne | after noon |
| krajem, početkom, tokom | the of-form | krajem nedelje | at the end of the week |
| od… do… + of-form | a span | od devet do pet | from nine to five |
| the object form alone | duration | čekao sam sat | I waited an hour |
By example
- Preselio sam se pre pet godina, a za godinu dana se vraćamI moved five years ago, and in a year I am coming back
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
U pet, za godinu dana, pre pet godina: how does it work in Serbian?
Fixing a time means choosing a form several times over. There are few prepositions, but two of them point the opposite way from what you expect, and then the meeting falls through.
What does it look like in a Serbian example sentence?
“Видимо се у среду (Vidimo se u sredu) у (u) пет (pet), не (ne) пре (pre) тога” (toga) (Vidimo se u sredu u pet, ne pre toga) — We will meet on Wednesday at five, not before. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.