58 Verbs 'nosim', 'vodim', 'vozim'

The three verbs, nosim "carry", vodim "lead", and vozim "drive" share many similarities, mostly in their forms, so it's useful to cover them together. The derived meanings are important and a bit unexpected.

Verb nosim

The verb nosim has a basic meaning "carry" (impf.), but with a lot of derived verbs and meanings. The verb itself is often used, having an object in accusative:

Ana nosi knjigu. "Ana is carrying (a) book."
Ana nosi knjigu Ivanu. "Ana is carrying (a) book to Ivan." (added a recipient)
Ana nosi knjigu u školu. "Ana is carrying (a) book to school." (added a destination)
Ana nosi naušnice. "Ana carries earrings." (= "wears", metaphorical)
Ana nosi naušnice u školu. "Ana is carrying earrings to school." (meaning, "she will leave them there")
Ana je nosila naušnice u školi. "Ana was carrying earrings at school." (meaning, "she was wearing them at school")

To refer to an actual act of putting earrings on of off, you should use verbs stavljam ~ stavim and skidam ~ skinem.

The usual distinction u + dat. = place vs. u + acc. = destination is important. The verb is main way to say one is wearing something:

Ana nosi kaput. "Ana is wearing (a) coat."

All the above verbs were imperfective. Since carrying is something that naturally takes a time, there are two versions of perfective, meaning "take away" and "bring". Take care, all perfective verbs derived from nosim have strange forms.

The derived verbs have diverse meanings and follow the "broken symmetric aspect pattern" where verbs that consist of a suffix + nosim are impf., and the perf. ones are derived from an irregular base not used on its own:

-nosim ~ -nesem, -nïo, -nijëla

Unfortunately, some verbs have different, unrelated meanings in their "impf./perf." pair (such meanings are shown separately) and some others act as a normal pair:

prefixgrammarmeaning
do-N A (DEST) (D)N brings A (DEST) (to D)
dopri-N (D) (I)N contributes (to D) (with I)
iz-N A (iz G)N brings out A (from G)
na-N A (na A1)N puts, coats A (on A1)
N (A) (D)N inflicts (A) (to D)
od-N AN carries away A
po-impf.N se (I)N is proud (of I)
perf.N (A)N takes, carries (A)
pod-N AN withstands, tolerates A
prë-N (A) (prëko G)N carries, transmits (A) (over G)
pri-N A (D)N brings A close (to D)
N (D) (I)N contributes (to D) (with I)
raz-N A (DEST)N scatters, distributes A (DEST)
N A (na A1)N explodes, blows A (to A1)
u-N A (DEST)N brings A in (DEST)

The verbs derived with od- and do- mean "take things away" or "bring things". All other uses of nosim apply. The verb odnesem also has a generic perf. meaning sometimes:

Ana je odnijëla knjigu. "Ana took away (the) book."
Ana je odnijëla knjigu Ivanu. "Ana took (the) book to Ivan." (added a recipient, meaning "taking away" is weakened)
Ana je odnijëla knjigu u školu. "Ana took (the) book to school." (added a destination)
Ana je donijëla knjigu. "Ana brought (the) book."
Ana je donijëla knjigu Ivanu. "Ana brought (the) book to Ivan." (added a recipient)
Ana je donijëla knjigu u školu. "Ana brought (the) book to school." (added a destination)

Verbs derived with u- and iz- are opposites as well, meaning "bring in"/"bring out", but as usual, the prepositions are used again:

Ivan je unïo knjige u kuću. "Ivan brought books into (the) house."
Ivan je iznïo knjige iz kuće. "Ivan brought books out of (the) house."
Ivan je odnïo knjige u kuću. "Ivan took books into (the) house."
Ivan je odnïo knjige iz kuće. "Ivan took books out of (the) house."

Since nosim is just impf., and has no true perf. pair, such verbs are always used. You can use odnesem as meaning almost the same, but unesem/iznesem emphasize that "in"/"out". iznesem can mean also "wear out", "wear until no longer wearable".

Verb prenosim means things were taken from one place to another:

Ivan je prenïo knjige iz kuće u stan. "Ivan moved books from (the) house to (the) appartment."

Verb prinosim means "bring to", but also "contribute", and doprinesem only "contribute". In both verbs thing you are contributing to must be in dat. doprinesem usually does not have an object in acc.:

Ivan je prinïo knjigu prozoru. "Ivan brought (the) book to (the) window." (prozoru = dat.)
Ivan je dioprinïo pobjedi. "Ivan contibuted to victory." (pobjedi = dat.)

Verb derived with raz- means taking things to multiple places (e.g. mail) but also "blown up" by a bomb or so:

Ivan je raznïo pisma. "Ivan delivered letters."
Bomba je raznijëla kuću. "(A) bomb has blown up (the) house."

Verb nanosim is used with a special meaning and a even more interesting derived meaning "inflict", used only with "wounds", "defeat" and similar "damages" with the damaged things or persons in dat.:

Ivan je nanïo boju na ogradu. "Ivan put (a layer of) paint on (the) fence."
Bomba je nanijëla štetu kući. "(A) bomb has inflicted damage on the house." (kući = dat.)

The verb podnosim is the main way to say "tolerate":

Ivan ne podnosi vrućinu. "Ivan does not withstand heat." (vrućinu = acc.)

The verb ponesem, ponïo, ponijëla, ponijëti perf-s. "take, carry" means that one took something to carry, but not emphasizing that it was "away".

Ivan je ponïo knjige. "Ivan carried books." (helped carrying, emphasize is on action, not on "from" or "to")

With a se, verbs are derived from that verb, with interesting meaning based on "carrying oneself" = "acting" = "behaving"

ponosim se impf. "be proud" (+ ins.)
odnosim se impf. "treat" (+ prema dat.)
ponašam se ~ ponesem se, ponïo se, ponijëla se, ponijëti se "behave"

Verbs ponosim se and odnosim se have no perf. pair; the other verb is the main way of expressing "behave":

Ivan se ponosio uspjehom. "Ivan was proud of (the) success." (uspjehom = ins.)
Ivan se odnosio loše prema psu. "Ivan treated (the) dog badly." (psu = dat.)
Ivan se ponašao čudno. "Ivan was behaving strangely." (čudan adj. "strange")

At the first look, ponašam has no link with nosim, but there are seldom used verbs derived from nosim:

unašam ~ unesem, unesäo, unesla, unesti "bring in for a long time; bring in without purpose"
iznašam ~ iznesem, iznesäo, iznesla, iznesti "bring out for a long time; bring out without purpose"
etc.

These stand for action that took really a long, long time, much more than expected. But they are really seldom used.

What is not seldom used are nouns derived from such verbs. Often they have a very derived meaning (their gender follows the default pattern, and they all have plural just on an odnosodnosi, etc.):

doprinos "contribution"
odnos "relationship"
iznos "final sum in a calculation", "sum on a bill"
prijënos "transmission, broadcast"
ponos "pride"
prinos "yield" (of grain, etc.)
unos "entry" (in a book, computer, etc.)

Verbs vodim and vozim

These verbs are alike nosim: they have "broken symmetric patterns", and their perf. verbs are unlike their impf. verbs. The verb vodim means "lead" and vozim means "drive". There's another problem — the perf. verbs for these two families are alike and can be confused, since infinitives have the same form:

-vodim ~ -vedem, -veo, -vela, -vesti
-vozim ~ -vezem, -vezäo, -vezla, -vesti

The verb vodim has a couple of derived meanings: "carry" (electricity), "lead" (in a game), and "take" (somebody somewhere, e.g. children to school):

[under construction]

The prefixed verbs for vodim have diverse meanings, some of them quite metaphorical. They are:

prefixgrammarmeaning
do-N A-pers (DEST)N brings A-pers (DEST)
iz-N A-pers (iz G) (DEST)N takes A-pers out (from G) (DEST)
na- N A-pers na A1
N A-pers da ...
N leads, induces A-pers to A1
N leads, induces A-pers to ...
N A-impN leads, guides A-imp
N da ...
N A
N states, cites that ...
N states, cites A
od-N A-pers (DEST)N brings A-pers (DEST)
prë-N (A) (s G) (na A1)N translates (A) (from G) (to A1)
N A prëko GN leads A over G
po- (perf.)N A-pers (DEST)N takes A-pers (DEST)
prëd- (impf.)N (A)N heads (A)
pro-N AN spends A (time)
N A (kroz A1)N leads, carries A (through A1)
raz-N-pl se
N se (od G)
N-pl divorce
N divorces (G)
N A (kroz A1)N distributes (around, through A1)
s-N A (na A1)
N se na A
N reduces A (to A1)
N reduces to A
u-N A (DEST)N introduces A (DEST)
za-N AN seduces A

The main difference between nosim and its derivatives and vodim is that you use vodim for persons (sometimes animals) that move on their own, and they you just "lead" them. English can use "take" for both meanings: you can "take someone to movies", in Croatian, you must use vodim.

There are two similar verbs derived from nosim, using prefixes od- and do-; similar verbs are derived from vodim. The verbs with od- have emphasis on "removing", and ones with do- the emphasis is on "bringing/taking home", where "home" can be relative to the speaker, or relative to the subject of a sentence:

Ana je dovela djëcu. "Ana brought the children."
Ana je odvela djëcu u kino. "Ana took the children to cinema."
Ana je donijela pismo. "Ana brought the letter."
Ana je odnijela pismo Ivanu. "Ana took the letter to Ivan."

The verb prëvodim ~ prëvedem, prëveo, prëvela, prëvesti is mainly used in its derived meaning "translate":

Ana je prëvela pismo na engleski. "Ana has translated the letter to English."

The verb provodim ~ provedem, proveo, provela, provesti is sometimes used in basic meaning, "lead through", for example, a wire through a pipe. The verb uvodim ~ uvedem, uveo, uvela, uvesti is similar, but just meaning "lead into". They can be used for e.g. installing wires and pipes:

Ana je uvela vodu u kuću. "Ana has brought water supply to the house."
Ana je provela vodu kroz kuću. "Ana has installed water supply to the entire house."

Another often used derived meaning is "spend (time)":

Ana je provela ljeto u Dubrovniku. "Ana spent the summer in Dubrovnik."

There's another derived meaning. Verbs derived with u- and pro- mean also "introduce" and "carry though, complete":

The derived nouns are as follows:

dovod "intake"
odvod "drain"
povod "cause, incentive"
prijëvod "translation"
  provod "party, celebration"
razvod "divorce"
uvod "introduction"
zavod "institute" (!)

The verb vozim means just "drive" and the derived verbs have just meanings derived from it:

prefixgrammarmeaning
do-
iz-N AN exports A
na-
od-
prë-N AN transports A
raz-N AN distributes A
u-N A (ORIG)N imports A (ORIG)

[under construction]

The derived nouns are as follows:

dovoz ""
izvoz "export"
odvoz "drain"
  prijëvoz "translation"
uvoz "introduction"

[under construction]

Updated 2014-06-03

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Daniel, puno hvala for your lessons, that are very clear and useful! Keep up the excellent work!

Pozdrav iz Italije

Andrea

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