kresati

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *krěsati, *kresati (compare Russian креса́ть (kresátʹ), Polish krzosać), from Proto-Indo-European *krek- (“to weave”), related to Ancient Greek κρόκη (krókē, “thread”).^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /krěsati/
Hyphenation: kre‧sa‧ti

Verb

krèsati impf (Cyrillic spelling крѐсати)

(transitive) to prune, trim, cut, clip
kresati grane ― to trim branches

kresati stablo/drvo ― to prune a tree
(transitive, slang) to have sex
kresao sam mu sestru dok je bio na ljetovanju/letovanju ― I was having sex with his sister while he was on vacation
(transitive) to reduce, cut, decrease
kresali smo budžet sve dok ga nismo uravnotežili ― we kept cutting the budget until we balanced it
(transitive, with dative) to speak openly and harshly
nemoj mi kresati te gluposti u brk! ― stop telling me that nonsense to my face!

Conjugation

Conjugation of *kresati*
		singular			plural
infinitive		kresati
present verbal adverb		krȅšūći
past verbal adverb		—
verbal noun		krèsānje

		1^st	2^nd	3^rd	1^st	2^nd	3^rd
present		krešem	krešeš	kreše	krešemo	krešete	krešu
future	future I	kresat ću¹ kresaću	kresat ćeš¹ kresaćeš	kresat će¹ kresaće	kresat ćemo¹ kresaćemo	kresat ćete¹ kresaćete	kresat ćē¹ kresaće
future	future II	bȕdēm kresao²	bȕdēš kresao²	bȕdē kresao²	bȕdēmo kresali²	bȕdēte kresali²	bȕdū kresali²
past	perfect	kresao sam²	kresao si²	kresao je²	kresali smo²	kresali ste²	kresali su²
	pluperfect³	bȉo sam kresao²	bȉo si kresao²	bȉo je kresao²	bíli smo kresali²	bíli ste kresali²	bíli su kresali²
	imperfect	kresah	kresaše	kresaše	kresasmo	kresaste	kresahu
conditional	conditional I	kresao bih²	kresao bi²	kresao bi²	kresali bismo²	kresali biste²	kresali bi²
conditional	conditional II⁴	bȉo bih kresao²	bȉo bi kresao²	bȉo bi kresao²	bíli bismo kresali²	bíli biste kresali²	bíli bi kresali²
imperative		—	kreši	—	krešimo	krešite	—
active past participle		kresao m / kresala f / kresalo n			kresali m / kresale f / kresala n
passive past participle		kresan m / kresana f / kresano n			kresani m / kresane f / kresana 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

Related terms

krȅsnuti pf

References

“kresati”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
“kresati”, in Речник српскохрватскога књижевног језика (in Serbo-Croatian), Друго фототипско издање edition, volume 2, Нови Сад, Загреб: Матица српска, Матица хрватска, 1967–1976, published 1990, page 55

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 775

[1] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2010) Etymological Dictionary of Greek (Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series; 10), with the assistance of Lucien van Beek, Leiden, Boston: Brill, →ISBN, page 775

[1]