nijesmo

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• (Standard Bosnian, Standard Croatian, Standard Serbian) nísmo
• (regional, chiefly Serbia) nésmo

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *ne + *esmъ, first-person plural present tense form of *byti. This formation later created *ne jesmъ in the South Slavic vernaculars, which merged to become něsmo (attested in 1395). Because of the yat reflex, něsmo became rendered as nijesmo in Ijekavian speeches.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /nijěːsmo/, /nijěsmo/
• Hyphenation: ni‧je‧smo

Verb

nijésmo, nijèsmo (Cyrillic spelling није́смо, нијѐсмо)

1. (historical, literary) negative first-person plural present of biti

References

• “nijesmo” in Hrvatski jezični portal
• Pero Budmani, editor (1892-1897), “jesam”, in Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika‎^[1] (in Serbo-Croatian), volume 4, Zagreb: JAZU, page 606