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106 CHAPTER 7 77 Present tense, continued Although most verbs of the e-conjugation have infinitives ending in -ati or -iti, there are some whose infinitives end in -eti. Most of these have ekavian and ijekavian forms of the infinitive (and sometimes of the present tense as well). 77a. Type razumjeti A few verbs have ekavian and ijekavian forms in both infinitive and present tense. The theme vowel of the infinitive is short but that of the present is long, which means ijekavian spells the infinitive with -je- but the present tense with -ije-. For more on this type, see [153n]. 77b. Type donijeti / doneti Prefixed perfective verbs with present stem is -nes- represent a special type. The present is the same in both ekavian and ijekavian, but the infinitive has two different forms (ijekavian in -nijeti and ekavian in -neti). The final consonant of the present stem is dropped before the infinitive ending. 78 The imperative mood The imperative mood is used to give commands and issue requests. The speaker desires that a certain action be accomplished, and addresses either a single person or a group to request that this come about. The forms of the imperative differ depending on the number and nature of persons addressed; it is also possible for the speaker to include himself (or herself) into the group who will presumably perform the desired action. 78a. Endings of the imperative mood The imperative mood is made by adding endings to the imperative stem. Deriving the imperative stem is very easy: drop the final vowel of the 3pl. present (of any of the three conjugations ). If what remains ends in -j, that is the imperative stem. Otherwise, add the theme vowel i to derive the imperative stem. The imperative of biti is formed from the present stem bud-, and the imperative of otići is formed from either of its two present stems: od- or otiđ-. The imperative itself has three endings: singular, plural and inclusive. The singular ending is -Ø: that is, the singular imperative is equivalent to the imperative stem. The plural and inclusive endings are -te and -mo, respectively. The chart below shows the stages in deriving the forms of the imperative. Verbs of group (1), which includes all a-conjugation verbs and certain verbs from the other two conjugations, have the simple imperative stem. The accent is that of the present tense, and the vowel before -j is always long. All others fall into group (2), and add the razùmjeti understand razùmeti understand razùmijem razùmijemo razùmem razùmemo razùmiješ razùmijete razùmeš razùmete razùmije razùmiju razùme razùmeju J razumjeti / E razumeti; J razumijem etc. / E razumem etc. dònijeti / dòneti bring donèsem donèsemo donèseš donèsete donèse donèsu J donijeti / E doneti CHAPTER 7 107 theme vowel -i. In most of these imperative forms, the accent is that of the infinitive. Those in the subgroup (2a) make no further changes, while those in subgroup (2b) replace stem-final -k and -g by -c and -z, respectively. There are very few such verbs; all have infinitives ending in -ći. Of the three examples of this type listed below, the verb reći is rarely used in the present tense, but its imperative is very common. The present tense of the verbs pomoći and leći is given in [94c], where it is seen that their present tense forms include the consonant n. One must drop this n in order to find their imperative stems. On the printed page, the imperative forms of i-conjugation verbs look exactly like their present tense forms (3sg., 1pl., 2pl.). The speech situation usually provides sufficient clues to distinguish them. In addition to context, there is also vowel length: the theme vowel of the present tense is long and that of the imperative is short. IMPERATIVE MOOD infinitive 3pl pres stem singular plural inclusive 1 a- dòdati dòdaju dodaj- dòdaj dòdajte dòdajmo add; pass čìtati čìtaju čitaj- čìtaj čìtajte čìtajmo read putòvati pùtuju putuj- pùtuj pùtujte pùtujmo travel *i- stàjati stòje stoj- stoj stojte stojmo stand e- čuti čuju čuj- čuj čujte čujmo listen pòpiti pòpiju popij- pòpij pòpijte pòpijmo drink [up] 2a i- staviti stave stav-i stavi stavite stavimo put ràditi rade rad-i ra...

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