ići

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ici"

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *jьti, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *eitei, from Proto-Indo-European *h₁éyti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ǐt͡ɕi/
• Hyphenation: i‧ći

Verb

ìći impf (Cyrillic spelling ѝћи)

1. (intransitive) to go, walk
2. (intransitive) to flow, run, leak (of liquid)
3. (intransitive) to function, work (of a machine)
4. (intransitive, dative) to do well, go well, succeed

   "Sumnjam da će to ići. No, probajmo!" pomisli mladi postolar. ― "I doubt that will go well." thought the young shoemaker.

   • 1969, Ivana Brlić-Mažuranić, The Brave Adventures of Lapitch:

     "Sumnjam da će to ići. No, probajmo!" pomisli mladi postolar. […]

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

5. (intransitive) to elapse, pass (of time or period)
6. (intransitive) to belong to, classify as
7. (intransitive) to suit, fit
8. (auxiliary, informal) Forms a near future tense, akin to English going to future tense construction.

   Gladan sam. Idem jesti! ― I am hungry. I'm gonna go eat! (literally, “I am hungry. I go eat!”)

   Umorio sam se! Idem odmoriti. ― I am exhausted. I'm gonna go rest! (literally, “I am tired. I go rest!”)

   Ideš li na koncert sutra? Svi idu! ― Are you going to the concert tomorrow? Everyone is gonna go! (literally, “Are you going to the concert tomorrow? Everyone goes!”)

9. (auxiliary, informal) Forms a past progressive tense that entails an inchoate future aspect.

   Išao sam pokositi travu u vrtu, ali je počela padati kiša. (Croatia)
   Išao sam da pokosim travu u vrtu, ali je kiša počela da pada. (Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro) ― I was going to mow the lawn, but it started raining. (literally, “I went to mown the lawn, but it started raining.”)

Usage notes

• By definition, ići implies movement; it is usually translated as "going to go/gonna go", indicating a planned action or intention or a suggestion that is to take place or be done soon.
• Ići is an imperfective verb, therefore it matches the function of English's progressive aspect. The verb is followed by the action verb in either infinitive (Croatia) or present form (Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro). Action verb can be omitted if it is deducible from context:

Jesi li pokosio travu? Ne, išao sam, ali počela je padati kiša. ― Did you cut the grass? No, I was going to, but it started raining.

• Since aorist and imperfect have become obsolete in some dialects in Croatia and supplanted in function by past perfect, the form of the tense matches the past perfect construction. Therefore, the sentence "Išao sam." could be translated as either "I went." or "I was going." depending on context.
• The future formed with "ići" is usually reserved for informal situations and actively avoided in formal ones in both speech and writing where simple future tense would be used; i.e. "Hoćete li ići na koncert?" ("Will you be going/go to the concert?") instead of "Idete na koncert?" ("You gonna go to the concert?)

Conjugation

Conjugation of ići

infinitive		ići
present verbal adverb		ȉdūći/ìdūći
past verbal adverb		ìšāvši
verbal noun		ìdēnje
		singular			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present		ȉdēm/ìdēm	ȉdēš/ìdēš	ȉdē/ìdē	ȉdēmo/idémo	ȉdēte/idéte	ȉdū/ìdū
future	future I	ìći ću	ìći ćeš	ìći će	ìći ćemo	ìći ćete	ìći ćē
	future II	bȕdēm ìšao2	bȕdēš ìšao2	bȕdē ìšao2	bȕdēmo ìšli2	bȕdēte ìšli2	bȕdū ìšli2
past	perfect	ìšao sam2	ìšao si2	ìšao je2	ìšli smo2	ìšli ste2	ìšli su2
	pluperfect3	bȉo sam ìšao2	bȉo si ìšao2	bȉo je ìšao2	bíli smo ìšli2	bíli ste ìšli2	bíli su ìšli2
	imperfect	ȉđāh	ȉđāše	ȉđāše	ȉđāsmo	ȉđāste	ȉđāhu
conditional	conditional I	ìšao bih2	ìšao bi2	ìšao bi2	ìšli bismo2	ìšli biste2	ìšli bi2
	conditional II4	bȉo bih ìšao2	bȉo bi ìšao2	bȉo bi ìšao2	bíli bismo ìšli2	bíli biste ìšli2	bíli bi ìšli2
imperative		—	ìdi	—	ìdimo	ìdite	—
active past participle		ìšao m / ìšla f / ìšlo n			ìšli m / ìšle f / ìšla 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.

Derived terms

• dóći pf (“to arrive”)
• izáći, izíći pf (“to go out, rise (Sun, Moon)”)
• mimoíći pf (“to pass by, cross paths”)
• nadíći pf
• naíći pf (“to find, meet”)
• naíći pf (“to come across, appear”)
• obíći pf (“to circle, visit, rummage”)
• otíći pf (“to leave, depart”)
• póći pf (“to go, start”)
• podíći pf (“to raise, lift, build”)
• préći pf (“to pass through, go along”)
• príći pf (“to approach”)
• próći, préći pf (“to cross”)
• razíći pf (“to split”)
• síći pf (“to descend”)
• úći pf (“to go in”)
• uníći pf
• uzíći pf (“to go up”)
• záći pf (“to go behind, to set (Sun, Moon)”)

Further reading

• “ići”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026