Lesson 07.Conditional Mood (First Conditional & Second Conditional)

Lesson Goals

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to:

• Form and use the conditional mood in Serbian
• Differentiate between real conditions (First Conditional) and hypothetical conditions (Second Conditional)
• Use bih + past participle for hypothetical actions
• Combine with Futur II and past tense in conditional sentences

1. Conditional Mood Overview

The conditional mood expresses actions that depend on a condition.

There are two main types in Serbian:

1. First Conditional — Real, possible situations
2. Second Conditional — Unreal, hypothetical situations

2. First Conditional

Structure:

[If clause: Futur II] + [Main clause: Futur I]

• Ako budem imao vremena, doći ću. — If I have time, I will come.
• Ako budeš učila, položićeš ispit. — If you study, you will pass the exam.

The if clause uses Futur II because the action is completed before the main action.

3. Second Conditional

Used for unreal or hypothetical situations (present or future).

Structure:

[bih, bi, bismo, biste, bi] + [past participle]

Conjugation of biti (conditional form):

Examples:

• Da imam vremena, putovao bih. — If I had time, I would travel.
• Da znaš istinu, ne bi to rekao. — If you knew the truth, you wouldn’t say that.

4. Negatives in Conditional

• Ne bih radio to. — I wouldn’t do that.
• Oni ne bi kupili auto. — They wouldn’t buy a car.

5. Mini Dialogue (Grammar Focus)

Ana: Šta bi radio da dobiješ milion evra?

(What would you do if you got a million euros?)

Marko: Putovao bih po svetu. A ti?

(I would travel around the world. And you?)

Ana: Kupila bih kuću na moru.

(I would buy a house by the sea.)

6. Vocabulary for This Lesson

7. Practice

A. Make First Conditional sentences:

1. If I have time, I will study.
2. If they arrive early, we will start the meeting.

B. Make Second Conditional sentences:

3. If I had money, I would buy a car.

4. If she knew, she wouldn’t say anything.

C. Make negative Second Conditional sentences:

5. I wouldn’t eat that.

6. They wouldn’t go without you.