# Serbian: Difference between promeniti, menjati, izmeniti



## knowledge123

Hi. I would like to know what is the difference between these verbs and when to use it ?:

*-promeniti
-menjati
-izmeniti *

Thank You


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## Vanja

Promeniti - to alter, replace sth (with sth new), 
menjati - to change (keep changing), replace (replacing)... 
izmeniti - almost same as promeniti, but it stresses change in physical appearance, order (reorganize) or correct sth
*promeniti izgled - (idiom) change appearance, we don't say "izmeniti izgled" since both have "iz-" and to avoid repetition

This is the shortest explanation. Is you have some question, I'll go to details.


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## Милан

Promeniti and menjati also can mean to exchange currency.
Promeniti and izmeniti are perfective, menjati is imperfective.


'Promenio je temu'. He changed the subject. We could use here izmeniti but the meaning would be lost. Promeniti is fixed.
I'd say promeniti and izmeniti are synonyms [more or less]


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## knowledge123

želim da izmenim moj život.(I want to change my life) Is this sentence correct ?
Izmenjam = I change/I'm changing (imperfective) ?
Meniti is perfective of menjati ?


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## Vanja

_Izmeniti_ is usually followed by an object (izmeniti nešto). 
Želim da izmenim par stvari u mom životu. (to change a few things in my life)
Želim da promenim svoj život. (to start a new life, to change (almost) everything, replace one life with another one OR bring a change into your life)

_Meniti_ does not exist. Perfective forms: izmenjati, izmeniti/promeniti


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## Милан

Vanja said:


> _Meniti_ does not exist. Perfective forms: izmenjati, izmeniti/promeniti



It actually exist [I've checked PMS2010 and RMS1] but we don't use it much [or at all].


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## Gvozden

"_Promeniti_" and "_izmeniti_" have the same meaning, and they differ from "_menjati_" because they are _stative verbs_ (_svrseni glagoli_). On the other hand "_menjati_" is dynamic verb (_nesvrseni glagol_).


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## Sremac

Menjati = to change. It is imperfective verb
Promeniti i izmeniti  ... prefixis "pro" and "iz" change the verb to perfective.
They have sometimes the same meaning, but sometimes not:
"Promeniti pesmu" = to play some other song
"Izmeniti pesmu" = to make some changes in the same song
"Promeniti stranku" = to leave a political party and to subscribe to some other
"Izmeniti stranku" = to make some changes in his politicl party
"Promenimo temu" = Let's talk about something else.
"Izmenimo temu" = Let's change the title or the text.


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## Daniel.N

_stative verbs_ as (_svrseni glagoli_) is fairly uncommon, since _stative_ has usually other meanings in linguistics. Perfective/imperfective are common terms.


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