Getting Around in Serbian: ићи & Friends

Here's some rare good news in Slavic grammar. Russian famously makes learners choose between идти and ходить, ехать and ездить, before they can walk anywhere. Serbian doesn't. One verb — ићи — covers going, whether once or habitually, on foot or by bus. Direction comes from prefixes, and that's the whole system.

Ићи — The One Going Verb

One conjugation serves every situation:

• Идем у школу. — I'm going to school (right now or every day).
• Идемо на море! — We're going to the seaside!
• Овај аутобус иде у центар. — This bus goes to the centre.

Direction by Prefix

Where Russian swaps verbs, Serbian bolts a prefix onto ићи. The stem bends a little, but the family resemblance stays clear:

On Foot or by Wheels

Serbian states the vehicle only when it matters, using the instrumental case or an adverb:

For longer journeys there's путовати (to travel), and for driving specifically, возити — but for plain going, ићи always works.

Saying Where To

Destinations pair ићи with у or на + accusative:

Идем на кафу — "I'm going for a coffee" — may be the most Serbian sentence in this course. The full logic of у/на lives in prepositions & cases.