Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian

This book is intended for beginners and intermediate students who need a reference that explains grammar in straightforward terms. It covers all the main areas of the modern single BCMS grammatical system in an accessible way, and free from jargon. When linguistic terminology is used, it is explained in layman's terms.

Auteur

Zeljko Vrabec has professional translation experience gained at the BBC and the UN. He is a multilingual specialist with over 25 years of BBC editorial experience in different roles - from copy-editing breaking European stories and writing in-depth political analytical reports to media landscape surveys. Recently he has worked as a dialogue coach and cultural approximation consultant to Oscar-winning actors. In the past few years he has been teaching BCMS at a language school in London.

Texte du rabat

Bosnian, Croatian, Montenegrin and Serbian: An Essential Grammar is intended for beginners and intermediate students who need a reference that explains grammar in straightforward terms. It covers all the main areas of the modern single BCMS grammatical system in an accessible way, and free from jargon. When linguistic terminology is used, it is explained in layman's terms, the logic of a rule is presented simply and near parallels are drawn with English. This book covers all the grammar necessary for everyday communication (reaching B1 and B2 of the CEFR, ACTFL Intermediate-Intermediate- Mid).

The book comprises of extensive chapters on all parts of speech, the creation of different word forms (endings for cases in nouns and adjectives, case forms for pronouns, tenses, verbal modes, verbal aspect etc.) and their uses in sentences. Each rule is illustrated with numerous examples from everyday living language used in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia.

This is a unique reference book in English aimed at the level of language study that treats BCMS as a single grammar system, explaining and highlighting all the small differences between the four variants of this polycentric language.

Contenu

Introduction

How to use this book

List of abbreviations

• The story of "four languages"

**1.1. Ekavian and Iyekavian pronunciations

1.2. Number of speakers, official language names

1.3. Brief outline of main grammatical differences

2. Alphabet, pronunciation, spelling 2.1. Vowels 2.2. Consonants 2.2.1. Voiced/unvoiced consonants

2.2.2. Soft/hard consonants

2.3. Consonant and vowel alternations 2.3.1. Consonant softening before -E (palatalisation)

2.3.2. Consonant softening before -I (sibilarisation)

2.3.3. J-changes (yotation)

2.3.4. Voicing assimilation

2.3.5. L/O changes

2.3.6. Fleeting *-a-

• 2.3.7. Removal of a duplicated consonant

*2.3.*8. **Multiple alternations

3. Nouns 3.1. Gender 3.1.1. Masculine nouns

3.1.2. Feminine nouns

3.1.3. Neuter nouns

3.2. Plural (nominative plural) 3.2.1. Masculine nouns

3.2.2. Feminine nouns

3.2.3. Neuter nouns

3.2.4. Neuter collective nouns

**3.3. Cases

**3.3.1. Cases in English and BCMS

3.3.2. The First and Second Declensions singular

3.3.3. Nominative

3.3.4. Genitive

3.3.5. Dative

3.3.6. Accusative

3.3.7. Vocative

3.3.8. Instrumental

3.3.9. Locative

3.3.10. Accusative vs Locative (destination vs location)

3.3.11. First and Second Declension plural

3.3.12. Genitive plural

3.3.13. The Third Declension (Feminine nouns ending in a consonant)

3.3.14. Frequently used nouns displaying irregularities in declension

3.3.15. Only plural nouns (Pluralia tantum)

4. Adjectives 4.1. Descriptive and relational adjectives 4.2. Gender 4.3. Short - long forms 4.4. Case endings 4.4.1. Short form cases

4.5. Possessive adjectives (Markov, Vesnin) 4.6. Comparison 4.6.1. Comparative

4.6.2. Superlative

4.6.3. How to say "than"?

5. Pronouns 5.1. Personal pronouns 5.2. Possessive pronouns 5.2.1. Svoj - possessive-reflexive pronoun for all persons

5.3. Demonstrative pronouns ovaj - taj - onaj, ovakav, ovoliki 5.4. Interrogative pronouns ko (tko), Sta (Sto), koji, ciji, kakav, koliki 5.5. Relative pronouns koji, Sto, ciji, kakav 5.6. Indefinite pronouns 5.6.1. Emphasised indefinite pronouns (whatever, whoever)

5.7. Reflexive pronoun sebe (se) 5.8. Pronoun sav, sva, sve (all, whole) 5.9. Pronoun sam, sama, samo

6. Numerals 6.1. Cardinal numbers 6.1.1. Cardinal numbers agreement with nouns, pronouns and adjectives

6.2. Ordinal numbers 6.3. Collective numbers -oro (two people, three people) ***6.4. Numerical nouns -ica (two men, three men) * 6.5. Approximate numbers *-ak 6.6. Fractions -ina *6.7. Numerals acting as a subject 6.8. Numbers used in dates 6.8.1. Days of the week

6.8.2. Months of the year

6.9. How to tell the time **6.10. Expressing age

7. Verbs

7.1. Infinitives

7.2. Conjugations * ***7.2.1. Present tense stem

7.2.2. Three Conjugations 7.3. Types of verbs *

***7.3.1. Transitive/intransitive verbs

7.3.2. Auxiliary verbs

a) *biti

*b) *htjeti=hteti

• 7.3.3. Regular verbs, pattern verbs, irregular verbs

7.3.4. Perfective/Imperfective verbs

7.3.5. Verbs of motion

7.3.6. Modal verbs

7.3.7. Reflexive verbs *

• 7.4. Tenses

7.4.1. Present tense **7.4.2. Past tense (Perfect tense)

7.4.3. Future tense

7.4.4. Future Exact 7.5. Moods

**7.5.1. Imperative

7.5.2. Potential mode 7.6. Participles * *7.6.1. L-participle

7.6.2. Passive participle 7.7. Conditional clauses

**7.7.1. Realistic - *ako

*7.7.2. Currently possible - *kad(a)

7.7.3. Unrealistic - *da 7.8. Passive voice

**7.8.1. Present passive

7.8.2. Past and future passive

7.9. Verbal adverbs 7.9.1. Present verbal adverb

7.9.2. Past verbal adverb

8. Adverbs 8.1. -LY adverbs and equivalents in BCMS 8.2. Comparison 8.3. As stand-alone words 8.4. Learning tip: adverb families 8.4.1. ne-, ni-, -i adverbs

8.4.2. ov-, t-, on- adverbs

8.4.3. Emphasised indefinite adverbs (wherever, whenever)

9. Prepositions **9.1. Prepositions used with only one case

**9.1.1. Only with the genitive

9.1.2. Only with the dative

9.1.3. Only with the accusative * *9.2. Prepositions used with two cases 9.2.1. Used with the locative or accusative

9.2.2. Used with the instrumental or accusative

9.2.3. Learning tip: when to use U, when *NA

• 9.2.4. Correlation between U - IZ and *NA - SA

*9.3. Prepositions with verbs of motion *

• 10. **Conjunctions and particles

10.1. Simple conjunctions 10.2. Compound conjunctions 10.3. Particles *

• 11. Sentence structure 11.1. Free word order 11.2. Enclitics **11.3. Direct and indirect speech

**11.3.1. Reporting statements

11.3.2. Reporting questions

11.4. **Predicate-only sentences

**11.4.1. Impersonal predicate-only sentences

11.4.2. Personalised predicate-only sentences

11.5. Negative sentences - multiple negatives

12. Word creation

12.1. The power of word creation

12.2. Nouns

**12.2.1. Suffixes for professions, doers, athletes

12.2.2. Suffixes for ethnicities, city dwellers, regional populations

12.2.3. -CIJA suffix for adopting foreign words

12.2.4. Diminutives

12.2.5. Augmentatives

12.2.6. Location suffixes

12.2.7. Suffix naming types of meat

12.2.8. Suffixes for abstract nouns 12.2.9. Verbal nouns …