How to Say “Use” and “Useful” in Serbian

Build a word family around the Serbian verb koristiti, “to use”. By comparing its conjugations, participles, adjectives and related nouns, you can express what you use, what is useful and who benefits.

How to Say “Use” and “Useful” in Serbian

To express that you “use” something or that something is “useful” in Serbian, explore the word family connected with the verb #koristiti, which is connected with our previous post with present-tense conjugations.

If you use it as a verb: KORISTITI, možete ga koristiti kroz različita vremena i oblike:

present-tense conjugations: koristim- koristiš- koristi // koristimo-koristite-koriste (For example: Koji program koristiš za obradu slika? Koristim "Paint", ali mi se ne sviđa. Da li si video Miletove fotografije? On sigurno koristi nešto drugo!)
Radni glagolski pridev - the form used in past tense: koristio-koristila-koristilo//koristili-koristile-koristila (e.g. Ma i Mile je koristio "Paint", ali je išao na neki kurs gde su svi koristili "Korel", pa je i on naučio da radi u njemu... a i ja sa njim, tako da sada koristimo isti program.)
Trpni glagolski pridev - the form which equals the Past Participle in English, used either in the Passive or as an adjective: korišćen-korišćena-korišćeno//korišćeni-korišćene-korišćena (e.g. Šta je korišćeno pri izradi? ) as well as korišten-korištena-korišteno//korišteni-korištene-korištena
Always check this great Logos Conjugator when searching for Serbian verb conjugations!

If you use it as an adjective: KORIStAN. Here are a few examples

Ovaj savet je koristan = This advice is very useful.
Čuo sam veoma korisnu priču = I heard a very useful story:

If you use it as a noun: KORIST = benefit, or KORIŠĆENJE (upotreba) = use.

Here comes a list of clever thoughts (mudre misli) with this noun - check the link. Meni je najkorisnija i najzabavnija bila ova: (I found this example the most useful and amusing)

Čovjeku koji je intelektualno viši od drugih, samoća pruža dvogubu korist; prvu, što je sam, i drugu, što nije s drugima :))))

Here are a few interesting common phrases and idioms with koristiti & korist:

Gde se dvojica svađaju, treći se koristi (verb=glagol) = two dogs strive for a bone, and a third runs away with it (similar to "zavadi pa vladaj" = divide and rule, which is more often used)
Izvući korist iz nečega = to turn sometning to good account (Moj prijatelj iz svake situacije izvuče korist )
Raditi u korist nečega =in favour of someone, to someone's benefit/advantage (Sud je doneo presudu u našu korist)

For more similar posts, check out the "Serbian Collocations" tag