# Bosnian (BCS): Zar nemaš sa kim ići u grad?



## musicalchef

Selam,

We're studying instrumental case now in the book, and were given the following conversation as practice:

Zar nemaš sa kim ići u grad?
Nemam
Onda hajde sa mnom!

I wasn't sure about the first sentence.  It is not translated, but I'm guessing from the other sentences that it is something like "Don't you have someone to go into town with?" Is this correct?  

The Bosnian sentence sounds a bit awkward to me, is there a better way of saying this?  I'm guessing that they're giving us some potentially weird sentences to explain the particular cases.

Hvala!


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## Duya

musicalchef said:


> Zar nemaš sa kim ići u grad?
> It is not translated, but I'm guessing from the other sentences that it is something like "Don't you have someone to go into town with?" Is this correct?



Yes.



musicalchef said:


> The Bosnian sentence sounds a bit awkward to me, is there a better way of saying this?



Well, the English one is awkward too, isn't it? 

I don't see a way to significantly simplify it. It is possible to replace "ići" with "da ideš", or even omit it altogether, esp. in colloqual speech. "Sa kim" is epenthetic variant of "s kim"; there's also the alternative "s kime". But those are just variants...


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## Athaulf

Duya said:


> Well, the English one is awkward too, isn't it?



I'd say more so, because in English, there is no equivalent expression to the BCS phrase _ići u grad_. I'd say it's because in most of the English-speaking world, people have very different cultural assumptions on what towns look like and how the business and other activities of their inhabitants are organized.


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## musicalchef

Hvala!  I was just wondering whether or not that really is the most common way to form the sentence.  

Yes, it is kind of awkward-sounding in English too!  It would have been even more so before people stopped using Latin-derived (as opposed to Germanic) rules, and saying not to end a sentence with a preposition (which I'm assuming actually is a rule in Slavic languages, like Latin).

So I guess if we were to say "don't you have someone with whom you can go into town," it would match up pretty well after all!  I think it kind of threw me off since there is no Bosnian equivalent of the "someone" in the sentence, and I just wanted to make sure I had the right idea of what it was saying.

Inaće, hvala puno!


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## Duya

Aha, I see the catch. 

Here, it is _ko_ which is the object of the sentence, and it can be in any case. It is relative here, and has the same role as English one/someone:

Imaš/nemaš/imaš li/zar nemaš... (You have/You don't have/Do you have/Don't you have...)

_...koga da pozoveš_ (...one to call)
_...ko da ti pomogne_ (...one to help you)
_...kome to da daš_ (...one to give it to)
..._s kim da odeš _(...one to go with)
_...o kome da pričaš _(...one to talk about)


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## musicalchef

Hvala!  That helps a lot, actually!

What is the infinitive of "odeš?" (I can't find anything under, oći, odeti, or oditi; and odati is something else)  Is it a perfective form of ići?  I've been hearing it a lot lately but wasn't completely sure what it was, except that it was somehow related to ići.


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## Duya

Otići = to leave, go away

The whole "**ići" family is ubiquitous and irregular (but fairly regular within the family), and the meaning is not always related with "to go":

proći, naići, doći, naći, izaći, ući, zaći, snaći...

Otići is an odd man out, because it has present "odem" (others have -đem) and "long" perfect "otišao" (others have only -šao)


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## texpert

Athaulf said:


> I'd say more so, because in English, there is no equivalent expression to the BCS phrase _ići u grad_.


 

What about "going downtown" (things will be great!  

But I agree it is not as widespread passing time concept as, say, in Sarajevo.


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## musicalchef

Hvala!  I didn't realize that odem was the present form of otići; I'd heard otišao/otišla many times but didn't make the connection!


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## WannaBeMe

Duya said:


> Otići = to leave, go away
> 
> The whole "**ići" family is ubiquitous and irregular (but fairly regular within the family), and the meaning is not always related with "to go":
> 
> proći, naići, doći, naći, izaći, ući, zaći, snaći...
> 
> Otići is an odd man out, because it has present "odem" (others have -đem) and "long" perfect "otišao" (others have only -šao)



Otići has also present otidem, otideš... at least it is usualy used by older people. And odem ist only simplified otdem>>>oddem>>>odem. Not so important, but anyway if musicalchef should haer it ever, so that he could recognize what is it about


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## WannaBeMe

musicalchef said:


> Selam,
> 
> We're studying instrumental case now in the book, and were given the following conversation as practice:
> 
> Zar nemaš sa kim ići u grad?
> Nemam
> Onda hajde sa mnom!
> 
> I wasn't sure about the first sentence.  It is not translated, but I'm guessing from the other sentences that it is something like "Don't you have someone to go into town with?" Is this correct?
> 
> The Bosnian sentence sounds a bit awkward to me, is there a better way of saying this?  I'm guessing that they're giving us some potentially weird sentences to explain the particular cases.
> 
> Hvala!



I dont know, I would say that "Zar nemaš NI sa kim izaći (u grad)" sounds prettier to me.
We should respect the rule of negation: "If one word is negated all should be negated."

Dont you have anybody to go out with.


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## Duya

WannaBeMe said:


> I dont know, I would say that "Zar nemaš NI sa kim izaći (u grad)" sounds prettier to me.
> We should respect the rule of negation: "If one word is negated all should be negated."
> 
> Dont you have anybody to go out with.



Now that you say it, yes, it sounds more natural indeed.


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