Second Conditional in Serbian Language

Ti si _______ čokolada
Ja sam ________ čokolada
I ____ _______ tako mlada,
Ja _______ te __________.

Ja ______ te ________...

Ti si _______ čokolada
Ja sam ________ čokolada,
I ____ _________ onog gada,
Ja _______ te __________.

Ja ______ te ________...



This is a great song to introduce Second Conditional sentences (Potencijalne uslovne rečenice) in the Serbian language. It's useful for you to refer to the Past Tense post, especially the section about forming the past participle (glagolski pridev radni), which is essential for forming this kind of if-clause. You can practise with these Past Simple exercises beforehand.

Now, for the language-theory and grammar buffs:

A. Conditional Tense + If-clause ('DA' + Present Simple)

Ja bih kupila pantalone da imam para.
or
Kupila bih pantalone da imam para.
ili
Da imam para, kupila bih pantalone.

B. Conditional Tense + If-clause ('KAD/UKOLIKO/AKO' + Conditional Tense)

Ja bih kupila pantalone kad bih imala para.
or
Kupila bih pantalone kad bih imala para.
ili
Kad bih imala para, kupila bih pantalone.

Conditional Tense:
Subject
+ would be ( bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi)
( called 'the aorist form of the verb 'to be')
+ Past Participle

Build an imagined situation in two halves

When you imagine a situation that is not real now, Serbian often joins two ideas: the imagined result and its condition. In Kupila bih pantalone da imam para, buying the trousers is only a possibility because the money is missing. Serbian lets you place the condition first or second, so word order can follow the idea you want to emphasise.

The short conditional forms are worth memorising as a rhythm: ja bih, ti bi, on/ona bi, mi bismo, vi biste, oni/one bi. The active past participle then agrees with the speaker: a woman says kupila bih, while a man says kupio bih. Notice that bi does not change for gender; the participle does.

Chocolate, music and impossible wishes

Latinica	Ћирилица	English
Da imam čokoladu, podelila bih je s tobom.	Да имам чоколаду, поделила бих је с тобом.	If I had some chocolate, I would share it with you.
Kad bi pesma bila sporija, lakše bismo čuli reči.	Кад би песма била спорија, лакше бисмо чули речи.	If the song were slower, we would hear the words more easily.
On bi plesao da zna sve korake.	Он би плесао да зна све кораке.	He would dance if he knew all the steps.
Da ste ovde, pevali biste refren sa nama.	Да сте овде, певали бисте рефрен са нама.	If you were here, you would sing the chorus with us.
One bi izabrale belu čokoladu kad bi mogle.	Оне би изабрале белу чоколаду кад би могле.	They would choose white chocolate if they could.

Move the condition and keep the meaning

Take one sentence from the table and say it twice. First begin with da or kad bi; next begin with the result. Keep a short pause between the two clauses. This trains flexible Serbian word order without changing the grammar.

Once bih–bi–bi–bismo–biste–bi starts sounding like a chorus, the conditional becomes much easier.
Marina Petrović