Prošlost

Why you are here

Today you learn how Bosnian builds the past with a little helper plus a gendered piece of the doing-word. English says I worked and she worked with the same worked. Bosnian says Radio sam if Emir worked and Radila sam if Ana worked. The helper is sam, si, or je for one person, and the other piece takes -o, -la, or -lo to match who did it. This chapter is only that past.

Why English lies

English lies because the past ending on the doing-word usually ignores whether the speaker is a man or a woman. I cooked and she cooked share cooked. Bosnian hangs gender on the past form itself. Bio is he was. Bila is she was. Bilo is leftover was. Schools call the helper forms of biti, and they call the whole tense prošlost, which means the past. You can keep saying sam plus the gendered piece and still be right.

A line you already say

Book 1 already taught you Ana, Emir, and the short word sam in lines like Ovdje sam. Today that helper joins the past. Emir can say Bio sam u Sarajevu, which means I was in Sarajevo. Ana can say Bila sam na moru, which means I was at the sea. Same helper family. Different gendered piece because Emir is he and Ana is she. The coffee and the house stay in their Chapter 1 piles. The new work is on the doing-word.

The pattern

Build the everyday past in two parts. First pick the helper that matches who. Ja takes sam, ti takes si, and on or ona takes je. Then pick the gendered piece of the verb. He-pile who gets -o, as in bio, radio, and pio. She-pile who gets -la, as in bila, radila, and pila. Leftover who gets -lo, as in bilo when pivo or Sarajevo is the subject. The helper can sit in second place, so Bio sam and Ja sam bio both appear. Learn Emir versus Ana first. Then notice leftover ono uses -lo.

Pio sam kahvu and Pila sam kahvu split on who drank, not on coffee switching piles.

The pests

Two pests will trip you today. The first pest is matching the past ending to the thing you drank instead of the person who drank. Ana says Pila sam kahvu with -la because Ana is she, not because coffee somehow became she in the past. The second pest is forgetting the helper. Radio without sam is not a finished everyday past for I worked. Keep sam, si, or je in the sentence. Those two habits will save you more grief than any new chart.

The bit that tricks you

The trap is to hear -la and decide the whole sentence flipped into the she pile for every noun. The -la marks who did the action, usually the person. Kahvu can still sit in its want-it form beside that past. The other trap is to copy English and put a he ending on a she speaker. If Ana did it, use radila. If Emir did it, use radio. Leftover subjects take -lo, and that form shows up less in café talk, so master he and she first.

Sample words

Tap a word to hear it.

Look at these

Each line has a speaker. Tap the line to hear it. On some lines you can record yourself for a short Speak Check.

Try these

Quick check

Next

You now can build Bio sam and Bila sam, and you know the -la follows Ana, not the coffee. Chapter 11 adds the future with ću, blunt versus polite commands, and the everyday row for can, must, and want. You still only own the past from today.