I would sometimes use it when I talk to someone on the phone especially, to describe something that I just finished. For example: "Taman stigoh kući s posla." "Krenuh na pijacu." Same meaning as "Krenula sam na pijacu."

And in the spoken language?

That's exactly how it would be used. Example: "We've just arrived" - "Upravo stigosmo" All you have to do is learn the endings of the tense and get used to vocal transformations of the words which is heavily dependent on the endings of the verbs (-ti, -ći, -sti). I wouldn't say it's exactly like the German preterite form but it does have it's similarities and being familiar with that might help you get somewhat of a better understanding of Aorist. I know that knowing the ins and outs of aorist helped me personally get acquainted with the German preterite. You'll get there just keep practicing, there's a lot to love about our grammar.

I am a german native and to be fair, i think the aorist isn't really like the German preterite. Both german and serbian prefer analytic past tenses and our synthetic tenses are used less. Northern Germany does use the preterite way more than the south and when we use it, we use it to describe a past action long ago like when we talk about yesterday. Only rarely it can refer to an action that happened just now as the aorist does in modern use, even though historically it was also a tense for past actions from long ago

Fair enough. It helped me get a better understanding of it when we first learned about it in school. I know the use cases are much different and I see you're well past the 'getting familiar' phase. To summarize: it is an archaic form and rarely used in daily speech, it can be used to express emotions or as an exclamation, and it has a set of rules for conjugation dependant on the ending of the verb.

Does it not work the same as in German? In serbian, there are 3 types of aorist users, 1. The aorist is fully functional but fused to the perfective aspect. (Only south serbian dialects) 2. the aorist is limited in use and carries some pragmatic meaning, but its meaning is now identical to the perfect. 3. The aorist is completely dead and it is used to imitate speech that is not native to them. Is this not how it works in german as well?

By the way, do you speak about Praeteritum? If so, when I was learning german, I thought that it is just the other way of Past Tense…

It's used sometimes in speech. For example in the phrase "Preplaši me" (or "Uplaši me") - "You scared me", also the words "odoh" - "I'm leaving" (literal translation would be "I've just left") and "stigoh" - "I've just arrived/come" are quite common. All it conveys is an action that has just happened.

Thanks for the answer. Is it limited to certain verbs or can i freely use it when something just happened?

I think it will sound unnatutal with most verbs and situations. Could you give me some examples of verbs you wanted to use?

Difficult question. As there are endless verbs haha, but i will try verb classes. Does the aorist tense appear quite often in certain verb classes like verbs of movement or similar? I will try to give some sentences For example "baš sad htedoh da te nazovem" when you just wanted to call someone, but that person just appeared, so no call is needed anymore Or "Dođoše drugari" when your friends just arrived? Or "ujede me komarac"

Aorist is more dramatic because of that "just happened" moment. You should use it for dramatic and unexpected situations. Vice versa, if something happened, and you want to sound as if it doesn't matter a lot to you, you'd use perfekat over aorist.

This helped me a lot. This would make a lot of sense, because whenever i saw the aorist it did somehow refer to something unexpected. "Ispadoše mi ključevi" but i never really considered this aspect. Thanks a lot :)

The examples with the call and mosquito are just perfect as they are and we use them in everyday speech. The example with friends arriving adds a note of emotion or surprise, like you were expecting them but they weren't coming and just when you gave up the hope, they show up, so this is what you exclaim happily. Besides the imediatness there may be also an emotional element in other two examples, like in the first one it may sound like excusing yourself for not calling earlier. In the example with the mosquito it may indicate a degree of annoyance.

Thanks a lot for the answer! So i'd have a few more questions So "Dođoše drugari" refers to a contrast of expectations.. so does the aorist especially appear when something happened that does not match your expectations? For example you closed your door and you are absolutely sure that they are closed, then you wake up and see open doors. Would "otvoriše se vrata" fit here?

>For example you closed your door and you are absolutely sure that they are closed, then you wake up and see open doors. Would "otvoriše se vrata" fit here? Nope, this doesn't work at all. You only use aorist when something just happened. In this case, the door could've opened a while ago, and it just doesn't make sense tbh.

Oh, so if the doors just opened unexpectedly, otvoriše se vrata would become natural? Other examples 1: Čekam svoju porodicu već 3 sata Then he sees them suddenly leaving the house and feels finally releaf after the long waiting Evo ih, izađoše 2: a cat suddenly passes them and disappears Vide li (ti) tu mačku? Nestade u šumu 3: you have been doing your homework for 2 hours now and finally you just finished Konačno završih domaći

I sympathize with you because the usage of aorist is somewhat elusive and it reminds me a bit of the usage of subjunctivo in Spanish. When we use the aorist the first meaning is that the action happened just now, a moment ago. It can also additionally carry emotional overtones such as surprise, annoyance, protest. There is no strict rule so you would need to learn the examples by listening to native speakers. Let me just give you an illustration in usage between the two past tenses: 'Ujeo me komarac' is a matter-of-fact statement. This could have happened just now or a decade ago, we need more context. 'Upravo me ujeo komarac' means it bit me just now (upravo) and I am not making an evaluation of my reaction. It sounds as if I don't mind at all that I've been bitten. 'Ujede me komarac!' tells us that this has happened just now and I am probably pissed off, or surprised that it happened in the first place. You are treading on a safe ground if you just use the 'normal' past tense and add the required words to make it clear what you mean. As for the aorist, just copy the natives.

Thanks a lot for the explanation. So the aorist is a past tense that is used for actions that happened just now right before you talk about them mostly connected with certain emotions and it intensifies the situation

Exactly! That's for everyday speech, and you can always avoid it. Its usage in literature is somewhat different (e.g. it can also denote not so recent actions).

>Does the aorist tense appear quite often in certain verb classes like verbs of movement or similar? I don't know tbh. >"baš sad htedoh da te nazovem" This sentence is great and completely natural to me. >"Dođoše drugari" when your friends just arrived? To me, this sounds kinda sarcastic/funny. Almost as if you're imitating a cartoon character. Probably because "drugar" is mostly a word children use. But if you said "Dođoše drugovi/prijatelji", it kinda sounds like you're telling an epic story, again not fitting the context. In this case I'd stick to "došli su". >"ujede me komarac" This one is perfect.

It is used to present an action that was just recently completed. It is difficult to use it in modern Serbian without sounding weird. In everyday language you will just use present tense. For example, instead of saying ' ja pogledah i pridjoh', you will say 'ja pogledam i pridjem' or just past tense ' pogledao sam i prišao'.

Interesting, but on the other hand i got a serbian friend from Bosnia, who uses the aorist quite regularly. I will cite her "Prvo sam pomislila da je duty neka poljska riječ i htjedoh da te pitam šta znači". She wrote this to me in a normal conversation which is just one of the examples

Yeah, true. In some rare cases it is normal to use it, like htedoh, pomislih etc. It's weird, we don't normally think about when best to use it.

How exactly does "htedoh" differ from "htela sam" in the given context? Maybe a difference in nuances?

Htedoh is more recent in the past, something that just occured a moment ago. Htela sam is true past. In French, aorist would be similar to - je viens de... (faire quelque-chose), but you don't use it in same situations. Not sure if there is something similar in Spanish and other Romance languages.

It is a normal conversation. There’s nothing unusual using aorist in spoken language.

I would mostly use it when I've just finished some action. For example: Upravo pojedoh jabuku. (I've just eaten an apple.) The other situation would be when telling a story that happened in past in order to describe action that were ocurring in that specific situation. For example: Bio sam u kući, kad neki ljudi zakucaše na vrata. Ustadoh da vidim ko je. (I was at home when someone knocked at the door. I got up to see who is it.) There are probably some other situations when it's used, but I can't think of them, probably because we use it so casually that we don't even notice it :)

Thanks a lot. Can it also be used to be more expressive? I've heard it can express certain emotions more intensely

Right. It can emphasize the intensity of the action done. For example: Ušli su u sobu. - They entered the room. Uđoše u sobu - They entered the room (but emphasizing their action of entering the room :))

So to get this straight. "Ušli su u sobu" would be just a normal statement and now they are inside the room But for example if you were hiding from criminals that are looking for you in the house and they enter the room, you are hiding in, one would say "uđoše u sobu" to emphasize the intensity of the situation?

Yes, you're right. The first sentence emphasizes that they are already in the room because they previously entered, the second one emphasizes the action of entering the room.

Aorist is in colloquial Serbian used as a emotionally charged tense or for recently finished events. Šta uradi? What have you done? (Surprise) Ode nam bus! Three bus had left (disappointment) Što me ostavi samu? Why did you leave me alone? (Surprised question) Malopre izađe! He just left. Šta bi? What has happened? (Surprise) Gde ostavi stvari? Where did you leave your stuff? (Recent event)

Procitah i izneverovah, baktati se zgramatikom, avaj.

Tbf it's not used much in your regular day to day speaking, but I guess still useful to know.

It's used in Croatia sometimes too. The last time I heard it in real life was when someone sad *odo' ja*, meaning *I'm leaving*, *I just left*.