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)
- (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 (in Serbo-Croatian), volume 4, Zagreb: JAZU, page 606