Watch the video and write down or record the questions and the answers based on the photos and prompts in the video:
Yesterday gives biti a gendered face
Serbian builds this past tense with a short present form of biti plus the active past participle: sam bio or sam bila, si bio or si bila, and so on. Gender is visible in the participle, while the auxiliary marks person and number.
The third-person auxiliary is je in the singular and su in the plural: On je bio umoran; One su bile spremne. In questions, da li keeps the statement order easy to recognise: Da li ste bili kod kuće? A short answer may be Jesmo or Nismo.
The subject hides, but the participle still tells
| Latinica | Ћирилица | English |
|---|---|---|
| Juče sam bila sama u praznoj učionici. | Јуче сам била сама у празној учионици. | Yesterday I was alone in the empty classroom. |
| Da li je Marko bio zadovoljan rezultatom? | Да ли је Марко био задовољан резултатом? | Was Marko satisfied with the result? |
| Dete je bilo budno posle ponoći. | Дете је било будно после поноћи. | The child was awake after midnight. |
| Nas dve smo bile na izložbi fotografija. | Нас две смо биле на изложби фотографија. | The two of us were at a photography exhibition. |
| Gosti nisu bili spremni za rani polazak. | Гости нису били спремни за рани полазак. | The guests were not ready for the early departure. |
Question the photograph before answering it
Pause on four photographs. Ask one question with da li for each image, answer in a full sentence, and change at least one answer from singular to plural.
- Complete: Ja sam ______ srećan.
- Feminine plural of bio?
- Write Dete je bilo budno in Cyrillic.
- Short negative answer to Da li ste bili…?
- Translate Juče smo bili kod kuće.
Every figure receives the right past form
- bio
- bile
- Дете је било будно
- Nismo.
- Yesterday we were at home.
Describe one real photograph from last year without naming the people first. Their number and gender should still be clear from bili, bile or bila.
Marina Petrović