trebati

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *terbati.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /trêbati/
  • Hyphenation: tre‧ba‧ti

Verb

trȅbati impf (Cyrillic spelling тре̏бати)

  1. (intransitive) to be needed, to be required (+ dative: by (someone))
    Treba mi novi auto.I need a new car.
  2. (transitive) to need, require
    Mislila sam da trebaš pomoć.I thought you might need help.
  3. (impersonal) to be necessary, should
    Trebao bih o tome razgovarati s ocemI should discuss it with my father
    Jesi li siguran da bismo trebali raditi ovo?Are you sure we should be doing this?
    Nismo to trebali učiniti.We shouldn't have done it.
  4. (impersonal) to be supposed to, to have to
    Samo mi trebaš v(j)erovati.You just have to trust me on it.
    Tko ga je trebao zaustaviti?Who was supposed to stop him?

Conjugation

Conjugation of trebati
infinitive trebati
present verbal adverb trȅbajūći
past verbal adverb
verbal noun trȅbānje
singular plural
1st 2nd 3rd 1st 2nd 3rd
present trebam trebaš treba trebamo trebate trebaju
future future I trebat ću1
trebaću
trebat ćeš1
trebaćeš
trebat će1
trebaće
trebat ćemo1
trebaćemo
trebat ćete1
trebaćete
trebat ćē1
trebaće
future II bȕdēm trebao2 bȕdēš trebao2 bȕdē trebao2 bȕdēmo trebali2 bȕdēte trebali2 bȕdū trebali2
past perfect trebao sam2 trebao si2 trebao je2 trebali smo2 trebali ste2 trebali su2
pluperfect3 bȉo sam trebao2 bȉo si trebao2 bȉo je trebao2 bíli smo trebali2 bíli ste trebali2 bíli su trebali2
imperfect trebah trebaše trebaše trebasmo trebaste trebahu
conditional conditional I trebao bih2 trebao bi2 trebao bi2 trebali bismo2 trebali biste2 trebali bi2
conditional II4 bȉo bih trebao2 bȉo bi trebao2 bȉo bi trebao2 bíli bismo trebali2 bíli biste trebali2 bíli bi trebali2
imperative trebaj trebajmo trebajte
active past participle trebao m / trebala f / trebalo n trebali m / trebale f / trebala n

1   Croatian spelling: others omit the infinitive suffix completely and bind the clitic.
2   For masculine nouns; a feminine or neuter agent would use the feminine and neuter gender forms of the active past participle and auxiliary verb, respectively.
3   Often replaced by the past perfect in colloquial speech, i.e. the auxiliary verb biti (to be) is routinely dropped.
4   Often replaced by the conditional I in colloquial speech, i.e. the auxiliary verb biti (to be) is routinely dropped.
  *Note: The aorist and imperfect were not present in, or have nowadays fallen into disuse in, many dialects and therefore they are routinely replaced by the past perfect in both formal and colloquial speech.

Derived terms

References

  • trebati”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025