# Macedonian: ide vs odi



## cr00mz

Hello

I have another question for you people.

What is the difference between these two words? Idam/Odam, Ideš/Odiš etc.

Does it have to do with Perfective vs Imperfective?

Thanks in Advance!


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## osemnais

идам = I come
одам = I walk


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## cr00mz

does Idam have anything to do with Doag´am/dojdam which if I'm not mistake also mean "I am coming/i come"? Or are they just synonyms


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## aleksk

As osemnais said (almost  )

идам - I come (but read below).
одам - I go

Note however: "идам" is colloquial and non-standard. Its usage varies from dialect to dialect. In Skopje for example, it means: I go (e.g. Утре идам за Охрид - Tomorrow I'm going to Ohrid, Идам да купам пиво - I'm going to buy beer, or even: Идам засекогаш - I'm going for good - I'm leaving and not coming back). In parts of the rest of the country it means "I come". (e.g. in Gostivar: Утре идам дома со неколку пријатели - Tomorrow I'm coming home with a couple of friends - said to someone already at home when talking on the phone. Чекај, идам со тебе - Wait, I'm coming with you. This would not be possible in Skopje: they would say "Чекај, доаѓам со тебе" If they say it, then they mean "Wait, I go with you"). So, it's one of those cases where you have to know where the speaker is from to know what they mean. People from Gostivar, for example (not only Gostivar, I'm taking it as an example), are often misunderstood when they use this word when talking to people in Skopje (What do you mean "come" or "go"?!  Sometimes it's evident from context, sometimes it's not. 

""Доаѓам" means "I come", and it is the correct, standard way to say it. However, you will never hear it in some dialects. (e.g. Gostivar again: you will only hear "идам“ meaning "I come", almost never "доаѓам" in colloquial speech). I recommend you stick to the standard usage and avoid "идам" altogether, unless you're sure who you're talking to. Remember it's non-standard, although extremely common, with different and non-interchangeable meanings from one dialect to another.


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## cr00mz

So in Skopje Idam and Odam are interchangable, meaning I go?

Also for the Idam (i come) what is the other word for the perfective/imperfective pair. Like Doag´am/Dojdam.


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## aleksk

Not quite...In Skopje "doagjam" would be strongly preferred meaning "I come", and "idam" meaning "I go", but the latter is not accepted as the literary standard - you need to say "odam" for that purpose. Another example - Иди донеси ми чаша вода: Go and get me a glass of water. 90% of the people in Skopje and the other northern dialects that border Serbia would say it that way (except in formal situations), but in other areas - all of Western Macedonia except Tetovo - you will get some strange looks saying that, prompting people to ask you where you are from. You would need to say "Odi donesi mi..." to blend in with the locals. 

Now, if I'm not mistaken - someone will correct me if I am - for the perfective you would use the literary form for all purposes: Мислев да одам (Скопје: Мислев да идам)/Мислев да отидам (all dialects) до/во библиотека денес: I meant to go to the library today. Here both perfective and imperfective are possible in the same sentence, with slight difference in meaning. What's the difference?

Мислев да отидам до библиотека денес да земам една книга: Here I'm saying: I meant to go to the library to borrow a book today. Action that will be finished (perfected) in a given time. I'm probably implying I'll be back quickly. 
Мислев да одам во библиотека денес.  Here I'm also saying: I meant to go to the library today. But I'm implying that I'll spend some time there, maybe the whole day studying. I don't know when I'll be back...Notice that the preposition will also normally change: до/во.  


Grammar is not my strong side, but if you give me examples that confuse you, I can clarify the usage for you.


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## iobyo

As aleksk pointed out, north-eastern dialects use _иде_ to mean 'to go' (_иди со него_, 'go with him') where south-western dialects and the standard would use _оди_ (_оди со него_).

The differences between _оди_, _иде_, _доаѓа _go beyond 'to walk' v. 'to go' v. 'to come' and I'm not confident explaining them in grammatical terms. This dictionary entry might be of help to you though.


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## cr00mz

I think that webpage that you gave me, has made me more confused.


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## Arath

cr00mz said:


> I think that webpage that you gave me, has made me more confused.


I hope that I don't confuse you any more, but I'm going to give you the explanation about the use of these verbs in Bulgarian. I read the dictionary entry and in all examples that were given, we would use the same verb. Also, some of the authors of the other responses don't seem very well versed in grammatical terminology, so if the usage in Macedonian differs from that in Bulgarian, they can correct me:

In Bulgarian *ида* (*идам*) can mean both *to come* and *to go*. When it means *to come* it is imperfective:

Иде пролет - Spring is coming

When it means *to go*, it is perfective:

Ще ида да купя малко мляко. - I'll go and buy some milk.

However, *ида* is old-fashioned or dialectal, which means that it is used mainly by old people or in old literature. In the standard modern language it is substituted by* идвам* (*доаѓам*) imp., *дойда* (*доjдам*) perf., both meaning *to come*, and by *отивам* (imperfective), *отида* (perfective), both meaning *to go*:

Идва пролет. - Spring is coming. (imperfective)
Пролетта дойде. - Spring came. (perfective)
Отивам до магазина да купя малко мляко. - I'm going to the shop to buy some milk. (imperfective)
Ще отида да купя малко мляко. - I'll go and buy some milk (perfective)

The only uses of *ида* in the modern language are in the idiomatic expression *иде ми да направя нещо* - I feel like doing something:

Иде ми да заплача. - I feel like crying.

And its imperative forms in combination with another verb meaning *go (and) do something*:

Иди купи малко мляко. - Go buy some milk.

In all other cases *ида* sounds old-fashioned or dialectal. Moreover, *ида* is a defective verb and doesn't have forms for the past aorist tense and all participles formed from it, which means that *идох*, *идохме*, *ишъл*, *ишла* and so on, don't exist.

*Ходя* (*одам*) means to go on foot, to walk, but it can also mean to move around by any means of transportation, and in that sense it is synonymous with *отивам*/*отида* (to go) and they can be interchangeable. However *ходя* implies that you regularly attend a place or you go there for the particular purpose it is designed for:

ходя на училище - to go to school (regularly and study there)
ходя на църква - to go to church
ходя на уроци по математика - to go to math classes.

In these cases if we use *отивам*/*отида*, it means going just once:

Отивам на училище. - I'm going to school (right now).
Отивам на църква. - I'm going to church.
Отивам на уроци по математика. - I'm going to math classes.

In conclusion: *ида* (*идам*) means both to come and to go, but it is old-fashioned, and it is substituted by *идвам*/*дойда* (to come) and *отивам*/*отида* (to go). *Ходя* (*одам*) means to walk, but it can be synonymous with *to go*. I don't think that Macedonian has the verb *отивам*, they use *одам* instead. So for this explanation to be valid in Macedonian, you have to make the following substitutions:

ида - идам
идвам - доаѓам
дойда - доjдам
отивам - одам
отида - отидам
ходя - одам


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## cr00mz

Ok thanks for clearing up a bit, i should probably stay away from ide for a while.

I see that where macedonian has one word (Odam) Bulgarian has two (Ходя/отивам)

Where you use 2 different verbs, does macedonian use the same? odam na učilište (As in i am a student and i go there everyday) Odam na učilište (this morning [right now] i am going to school) or is perhaps distinguished between the two with different preposition like vo or some other preposition?


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