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5. verbs to be, to have

Please, learn carefully the present forms of the verb byti = to be and corresponding personal pronouns:

 I 
am 
 (ja) 
jesm 
 we 
are 
 (my) 
jesme 
 you (thou) 
are 
 (ty) 
jesi 
 you 
are 
(vy) 
jeste 
 he, she, it 
is 
 (on, ona, ono) 
jest 
          they 
are 
 (oni) 
sut 


And the same to the present forms of the verb imati = to have:

 I 
have 
 (ja) 
imaju 
 we 
have 
 (my) 
imajeme 
 you (thou) 
have 
 (ty) 
imaješ 
 you 
have 
(vy) 
imajete 
 he, she, it 
has 
 (on, ona, ono) 
imaje 
          they 
have 
 (oni) 
imajut 

note
  1. There is yet one personal pronoun for "I", az. This is an old pronoun from the Old (Church) Slavonic language still used in Slovenian (jaz), Bulgarian (az) and (Slavo)Macedonian (jas). In Neoslavonic, we prefer to use ja, because it is used in majority of modern Slavic languages.

  2. There is yet a short form of "he, she, it is", je = jest. This short form is suitable to use when we create a compound verb form (e.g. past tense for example).

  3. Western and southern Slavic languages do not use the personal pronoun with verbs. Complete information about the verbal persons themselves is contained in the verb endings. The personal pronoun is used only in case of special need to emphasize person. For this reason, in normal situations, try to use verbs without personal pronouns.

    Example: imajeme = we have, my imajeme =     we personally have.

cases with verbs to be and to have

  1. Equivalency or "is-a" relationship of some two subjects is expressed by byti + nominative.

    Example: Pes jest životno. (A) dog N is (an) animal N. Moj prijatel jest dobry. My friend N is good N.


  2. Employment or other kind of a status or property description is expressed by byti + instrumental.

    Example: Moj prijatel jest učiteljem. My friend N is (a) teacher I.


  3. Ownership ("has-a" relationship) of something is expressed by imati + accusative.

    Example: Moj prijatel imaje psa.  My friend N has (a) dog A.


  4. Being of somebody (e.g. inverted "has-a") is expressed by byti + genitive.

    Example: Tutoj pes jest mojego prijatela. This dog N is of my friend G. (e.g. This dog belongs to my friend.)

Note that (as shown in statements 3. and 4.) the verb byti is like an inverted variant of the verb imati. For this reason (among others) the verb imati does not have its passive version, because it is expressed by the verb byti, and vice versa.

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