VCE Bosnian cheat sheet

Bosnian uses a 30-letter Latin alphabet (Gajica): a, b, c, č, ć, d, dž, đ, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, lj, m, n, nj, o, p, r, s, š, t, u, v, z, ž; the digraphs dž, lj and nj each count as a single letter for alphabetising.

Bosnian orthography is phonemic: one letter = one sound, so words are written as pronounced; final devoicing is reflected in spelling (e.g. 'grad' but 'grat' in derived forms), unlike Serbian/Russian conventions.

The vowel system has five vowels (a, e, i, o, u), all short/long by accent rather than by letter; 'r' can be syllabic (e.g. 'prst', 'krv'), forming a syllable without a vowel.

Three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine, neuter) and two numbers (singular, plural); a remnant dual survives only in paired body parts and a few fixed forms (e.g. 'oči', 'ruke').

Seven cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, vocative, instrumental, locative; case is governed by prepositions, verbs and sentence role (e.g. 'u' + locative for location, 'u' + accusative for direction).

The verb has aspect pairs: imperfective (ongoing/repeated: 'pisati', 'čitati') vs perfective (completed: 'napisati', 'pročitati'); aspect, not tense, marks completion.

Present tense endings follow the pattern -m, -š, -mo, -te, -ju/-e depending on conjugation class (e.g. 'radim, radiš, radi, radimo, radite, rade').

Word order is flexible (SVO default) because case endings mark grammatical roles; clitics (e.g. 'sam', 'se', 'je', 'li') occupy second position in the clause.

Bosnian is a South Slavic language of the Štokavian dialect group, written in Latin script, and is one of the three standard varieties (with Croatian and Serbian) based on the same dialect base.

Past tense (perfekt) = clitic present of 'biti' (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) + active past participle in -o/-la/-lo/-li/-le/-la agreeing with the subject (e.g. 'čitao sam', 'čitale su').

Future I = clitic present of 'htjeti' (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će) + infinitive or the 'da + present' construction (e.g. 'čit ću' / 'čitati ću', 'ja ću doći').

Future II (futur drugi) = 'budem' forms + past participle, used in subordinate clauses after 'ako', 'kad(a)', 'dok' to mark an action completed before another future action.

Aorist and imperfect are literary/narrative past tenses: imperfect (e.g. 'govorah') marks ongoing past background; aorist (e.g. 'rekoh') marks a completed past event; both are rare in speech.

Conditional I = 'bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi' + past participle (e.g. 'došao bih'); conditional II = 'bio bih' + participle for unreal past conditions.

The imperative uses second-person forms in -i/-j (e.g. 'čitaj', 'radi') and negated imperatives are formed with 'ne' plus the imperfective verb; aspect choice changes meaning (positive command often perfective, negative often imperfective).

Reflexive 'se' is a clitic that appears in second position and marks reflexive/reciprocal/passive-like meanings (e.g. 'kupam se', 'vidimo se', 'prodaje se'); 'si' is the dative reflexive (e.g. 'kupujem si').

Verbal nouns end in -nje/-će (e.g. 'čitanje', 'učenje', 'pevanje'), are neuter, and are used to render English gerunds and abstract concepts.

Bosnian literary and cultural canon includes oral epic poetry (deseterac, guslarska tradicija), sevdalinka songs, and twentieth-century writers such as Ivo Andrić (Nobel Prize 1961) and Meša Selimović.