Serbian Prepositions
Serbian Prepositions
Unlike nouns, pronouns and adjectives prepositions do not change their form. In linguistic jargon,
they are ‘undeclinable’ or uninflected. So, one less thing to worry about.
The following is an alphabetical list of Serbian prepositions and cases they require on their noun
phrase objects (shown as a subscript).
For instance, bezgen means that the preposition bez ‘without’ requires a genitive noun that follows
it; nadacc ,ins means that preposition nad ‘above’ requires either a noun in the accusative or the
instrumental case. For examples, see Table 2 below.
Please use Table 1 below together with noun-declension classes, to help you choose the right
noun case endings after the prepositions.
One generalization that can be observed from looking at this table is that majority of the
prepositions require genitive case (written in red), and only a few (in green) require other cases.
So, if you’re not sure what case to use after a preposition, your most probable guess is the
genitive case.
Table 1: List of Serbian prepositions and cases they require on their noun objects
Serbian English Serbian English
bezgen without poredgen beside, near
blizugen near poslegen after
dogen to, until posredgen in the midst, amid
dovrhgen on top potkrajgen at the end of
dužgen along povišegen above, atop
ispodgen under povodomgen on that account
ispredgen in front of povrhgen above, atop
izgen from pozadigen behind
izagen behind pregen before
izmeđugen between predacc, ins before, in front of
iznadgen above prekogen above, over, beyond
izvangen outside of, beyond premadat, loc toward, against
k(a) dat toward priloc at, over, by
kodgen at prilikomgen on the occasion of
krajgen by protivgen against
krajemgen at the end of putgen course, way
krozacc through putemgen by means of, via
međuacc ,ins among, between radigen because, for the sake
of
mestogen instead s(a) gen, ins with, by
mimogen beyond, outside of saglasnodat in accordance with
naacc,ins on, at semgen except
nadacc,ins on top of, above, over shodnodat in conformity with
nadohvatgen within the reach of, silomgen by force, under
close to. compulsion
nadomakgen, dat near, close to sličnogen similar, like
nakongen after, behind, past sredgen midst, in the middle
nakrajgen at the end of sredinomgen midst, in the middle
namestogen instead of, in place of suprotnodat opposite, contrary
Here are some examples of prepositions used in sentences. The case on the noun is indicated
using a subscript. The first three examples show prepositions that take only the genitive case.
The remaining examples show prepositions that can take more than one case. Make sense?