Bavim se sportom: three rules for the with-form
The with-form — the shape that answers "with what" — needs three rules, and they cover nearly everything. For example: “Чиме се бавите? Бавим се спортом и предајем у школи” — What do you do? I do sports and teach at a school. A rule from the Serbian course: worked out on examples, not memorized as a wording.
How it works
The with-form — the shape that answers "with what" — needs three rules, and they cover nearly everything.
First: what you do it with takes no preposition. Pišem olovkom, idem autobusom, sečem nožem. The preposition sa changes the meaning: idem sa drugom means I am going with a friend.
Second: a few verbs want this form and nothing else. Bavim se sportom, bavi se muzikom, rukovodi timom, upravlja firmom. And čime se bavite? is how you ask what somebody does for a living.
Third: after biti a profession stands in the plain form. On je bio mehaničar, not the with-form. English keeps the noun flat there too, so this rule costs you nothing.
Table
| the word | the with-form | in the sentence | in English |
|---|---|---|---|
| autobus | autobusom | idem autobusom | I go by bus |
| sport | sportom | bavim se sportom | I do sports |
| tim | timom | rukovodi timom | he runs a team |
| firma | firmom | upravlja firmom | she runs a company |
| stvar | stvari | radi sa tom stvari | he works with that thing |
| kolege | kolegama | razgovaram sa kolegama | I talk with colleagues |
| subota | subotom | radimo subotom | we work on Saturdays |
| mehaničar | mehaničar | bio je mehaničar | he was a mechanic |
By example
- Чиме се бавите? Бавим се спортом и предајем у школиČime se bavite? Bavim se sportom i predajem u školiWhat do you do? I do sports and teach at a school
- На посао идем аутобусом, а са колегом се видим средомNa posao idem autobusom, a sa kolegom se vidim sredomI take the bus to work, and I meet a colleague on Wednesdays
- Отац је био механичар, а брат је постао електричарOtac je bio mehaničar, a brat je postao električarMy father was a mechanic, and my brother became an electrician
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
Bavim se sportom: how does it work in Serbian?
The with-form — the shape that answers "with what" — needs three rules, and they cover nearly everything.
What does it look like in an example sentence Serbian?
“Чиме се бавите? Бавим се спортом и предајем у школи” (Čime se bavite? Bavim se sportom i predajem u školi) — What do you do? I do sports and teach at a school. A rule is easier to test on sentences like this than to memorize as a wording: what surfaces in conversation is the sentence.