spavati

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

See spati.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /spǎːʋati/
• Hyphenation: spa‧va‧ti

Verb

spávati impf (Cyrillic spelling спа́вати)

1. (intransitive) to sleep

   Ne spava joj se sada. ― She doesn't feel like sleeping. (literally, “It doesn't (feel like) sleeping to her.]”)

   On spava kao zaklan. ― He sleeps like a log.

2. (intransitive, formally) to have sex (+ s, sa (“with”) + instrumental)

Conjugation

Conjugation of spavati

infinitive		spavati
present verbal adverb		spávajūći
past verbal adverb		—
verbal noun		spávānje
		singular			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present		spavam	spavaš	spava	spavamo	spavate	spavaju
future	future I	spavat ću1 spavaću	spavat ćeš1 spavaćeš	spavat će1 spavaće	spavat ćemo1 spavaćemo	spavat ćete1 spavaćete	spavat ćē1 spavaće
	future II	bȕdēm spavao2	bȕdēš spavao2	bȕdē spavao2	bȕdēmo spavali2	bȕdēte spavali2	bȕdū spavali2
past	perfect	spavao sam2	spavao si2	spavao je2	spavali smo2	spavali ste2	spavali su2
	pluperfect3	bȉo sam spavao2	bȉo si spavao2	bȉo je spavao2	bíli smo spavali2	bíli ste spavali2	bíli su spavali2
	imperfect	spavah	spavaše	spavaše	spavasmo	spavaste	spavahu
conditional	conditional I	spavao bih2	spavao bi2	spavao bi2	spavali bismo2	spavali biste2	spavali bi2
	conditional II4	bȉo bih spavao2	bȉo bi spavao2	bȉo bi spavao2	bíli bismo spavali2	bíli biste spavali2	bíli bi spavali2
imperative		—	spavaj	—	spavajmo	spavajte	—
active past participle		spavao m / spavala f / spavalo n			spavali m / spavale f / spavala 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

• naspavati se
• neispavan
• odspavati
• pospan
• prespávati
• prospávati
• uspávati
• zaspati

References

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