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biti
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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Bikol Central
Pronunciation
Noun
biti
- (anatomy, usually of fish) A swim bladder of a fish.
- A swim bladder from the fish known as Abo or Tigertooth croaker, endemic in the San Miguel Bay in the Philippines.
Cebuano
Pronunciation
- Hyphenation: bi‧ti
Verb
biti
Czech
Pronunciation
Participle
biti
Huba
Noun
biti
References
- Ayuba Y. Mshelia, The Story of the Origins of the Bura/Pabir People →ISBN, 2014)
- Mohammed Aminu Mu'azu, A grammar of the Kilba language (2009) (as ɓìtì)
Icelandic
Pronunciation
Etymology 1
Noun
biti m (genitive singular bita, nominative plural bitar)
- piece
- Synonym: stykki
- mouthful, a morsel
- Synonym: munnbiti
- snack, bite, small meal
- Viltu fá þér bita? ― Wanna have a bite?
- crossbeam
- Synonym: þvertré
- (computing) bit, binary digit
Declension
Derived terms
- munnbiti
- (computing): skammtabiti (“qubit”)
Related terms
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Verb
biti
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Ido
Pronunciation
Noun
biti
Latvian
Noun
biti m
Noun
biti f
Lindu
Noun
biti
Lokono
Numeral
biti
Norwegian Nynorsk
Etymology 1
Pronunciation
Participle
biti
Verb
biti
Etymology 2
Pronunciation
Noun
biti n
Old Norse
Etymology 1
From Proto-Germanic *bitô, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyd- (“to split, crack”).
Noun
biti m (genitive bita)
Declension
Descendants
Etymology 2
See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.
Noun
biti
Verb
biti
Further reading
- Zoëga, Geir T. (1910), “biti”, in A Concise Dictionary of Old Icelandic, Oxford: Clarendon Press; also available at the Internet Archive
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Serbo-Croatian
Etymology 1
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *byti, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *bū́ˀtei, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-.
Pronunciation
Verb
bȉti impf or pf (Cyrillic spelling би̏ти)
- (intransitive) to be, to exist
- Biti ili ne biti? ― To be or not to be?
- (transitive, copulative) Used to connect a noun to an adjective or passive past participle that describes it (equivalent to all English senses and functions as a copula; subject having the state, quality, identity, nature, role, etc., specified.)
- Vrijeme je lijepo, a ja sam sretan! ― The weather is nice and I am happy!
- 1989, Đorđe Balašević, “Devojka Sa Čardaš Nogama”, in Đorđe Balašević (lyrics), Tri posleratna druga, performed by Đorđe Balašević, Novi Sad: Jugoton:
- Rekoh joj "Beži, mani se,
i traži bolje partije!
Premala je moja tambura
da te od kiše sakrije".- I told her “Move on, let go of me,
and look for a better catch
My guitar is too small
To hide you from the rain”.
- I told her “Move on, let go of me,
- (transitive, auxiliary, regional) Used as an auxiliary verb in the present to form near future tense; similar to English going to.
- Nisam siguran, budemo vid(j)eli. ― I'm not sure, we'll see.
- (transitive, auxiliary) Used as an auxiliary verb to form compound verb tenses (perfect, pluperfect, future perfect, conditional) together with the active past participle.
- Kad si zadnji put bio tamo? ― When were you there the last time?
- Trčao sam. ― I ran. / I have run.
- Trčao bih. ― I would run.
- Bio bih trčao maraton da sam tada imao tenisice za trčanje. ― I would have run the marathon if I had had running shoes at the time.
- (transitive, auxiliary) Used to form the passive voice together with the passive past participle of the main verb.
- Ulovio sam loptu. Lopta je bila ulovljena. ― I caught the ball. The ball was caught. / The ball has been caught.
- (intransitive, interrogatively) Used to form a question, usually a polar one.
- Jesi li tu? ― Are you there?
- (intransitive, copulative, impersonal) Used to indicate a general condition, such as weather, worth or value.
- Pet jabuka jest dva eura. ― Five apples are two euro.
- Rekli su da će danas biti sunčano. ― They said that it's going to be sunny today.
- (transitive, copulative, mathematics) to equal, to total, to add up to (indicates the equivalence of values)
- Pet plus pet je deset. ― Five plus five is ten.
- (intransitive, impersonal, in the future tense) Used to express a premonition; there will be, there is going to be, to be coming
- Bit će / Biće rata. ― A war is coming.
Usage notes
- 1st-person singular budem is perfective while 1st-person singular jesam is imperfective. jesam, jesi, jest(e), jesmo, jeste and jesu theoretically constitute a verb whose infinitive was lost before Proto-Slavic and all fell under the umbrella of the infinitive biti during Proto-Slavic. biti is thus simultaneously both imperfective and perfective and has therefore both a present (budući) and a past (bivši) verbal adverb.
Conjugation
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
- biće
- bistvo
- bit
- bitak
- bitan
- bitnost
- biva
- bivati
- bivovati
- bivstven
- bivstvo
- bivstvovati
- jesnost
- jestan
- jestiti
- jestvo
- prebivalac
- prebivalište
- prebivati
- prvobitan
- prvobitnost
- samobitan
- samobitnost
- snebiti se
- snebivati se
- zabat
- zbilja
- zbiljnost
- zbiti se
- zbivati se
Further reading
- “biti”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
- Đuro Daničić, editor (1880–1882), “bȉti”, in Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), volume 1, Zagreb: JAZU, page 342
Etymology 2
Inherited from Proto-Slavic *biti, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *bī́ˀtei, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-.
Pronunciation
Verb
bȉti impf (Cyrillic spelling би̏ти)
Conjugation
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
- izbìjāč
- izbíjati
- ìzbiti
- ìzbojak
- nabìjāč
- nabìjača
- nabíjati
- nabìjenōst
- nàbiti
- nábōjnjača
- obìjāč
- obíjati
- òbiti
- odbìjāč
- odbíjati
- odbijènica
- odbítak
- òdbiti
- ȍdbōjan
- òdbōjka
- òdbōjnīk
- odbójnōst
- pòbiti
- podbíjati
- pòdbiti
- prebíjati
- prèbiti
- pribíjati
- prìbiti
- príboj
- prijéboj
- probìjāč
- probíjati
- pròbiti
- próboj
- pròbojac
- próbōjan
- probójnōst
- razbìjāč
- razbíjati
- razbìjenōst
- ràzbiti
- rázboj
- rázbojīšte
- rázbōjnīk
- rázbōjnīštvo
- rázbōjstvo
- sabìjāč
- sabíjati
- sàbiti
- spodbijati
- spòdbiti
- suzbíjati
- sùzbiti
- ubìjāč
- ubíjati
- ùbilac
- ȕbitačan
- ȕbitačnōst
- ùbiti
- úboj
- ùbojica
- ùbojit
- ùbojitōst
- ùbōjnī
- ùbōjstvo
- ùzbiti
- zabijač
- zabíjati
- zȁbīt
- zȁbītan
- zàbiti
- zȁbītnōst
- zȁbītōst
- zbìjāč
- zbíjati
- zbìjen
- zbìjenōst
- zbȉti
Further reading
- “biti”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
- Đuro Daničić, editor (1880–1882), “bȉti”, in Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika (in Serbo-Croatian), volume 1, Zagreb: JAZU, page 338
Slovene
Etymology 1
From Proto-Slavic *byti, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰuH-.
Pronunciation
Verb
bíti impf
- (intransitive) to be, to exist
- Trgovina je za kavarno. ― The store is behind the cafe
- (transitive, copulative) Used to connect a noun to an adjective, noun or passive past participle that describes it (equivalent to all English senses and functions as a copula; subject having the state, quality, identity, nature, role, etc., specified.)
- On je moj prijatelj. ― He is my friend.
- (intransitive) there be
- Synonym: obstājati
- Bil je kralj, ki je vladal devetim deželam.
- There was a king which ruled over nine lands.
- Na sredi parcele je hiša.
- There is a house in the centre of the lot.
- (intransitive, impersonal) to be (see usage notes)
- Očitno je bilo, da ni imel pojma o tem, kar govori.
- It was clear that he had no idea about what he was telling.
- (elliptically) Taking the form of another part of a sentence:
- a binding participle
- Saj boš en kozarček, ne? ― You will drink a glass [of a drink], right?
- Kaj bomo pa zdaj? ― What are we going to do now?
- a part of a subject
- Ta stol je iz lesa. ― This chair is made out of wood.
- (modal, impersonal, with infinitive) a modal verb or predicative denoting possibility or obligation; often translated as passive
- Žive duše ni bilo videti ― There was not a single person to be seen. (literally, “(One) could not see a single soul”)
- (in conditional mood, colloquial) verb imẹ́ti
- Jaz bi plišastega medvedka. ― I would like to have a teddy bear.
- a binding participle
- (intransitive) to cost
- Torbica je bila sto evrov. ― The purse costed a hundered euros.
- (intransitive, expressive) to feel, to want[→SSKJ]
- Bilo mu je, da bi zavriskal. ― He wanted to shout out with joy.
- (intransitive, expressive, followed by da bi) to be worth
- 2015 April 2, “Govor generalnega državnega tožilca na posvetu "Otrok in pasti sodobnega časa"”, in Državno tožilstvo republike Slovenije, retrieved 7 February 2023:
- O aktualnosti teme pa ni da bi govoril, saj je pravzaprav večna: ni bilo časa, ki s sabo ne bi prinašal, ob vseh drugih, tudi novih pasti, problemov in vprašanj.
- It is not worth talking about the topicality of this topic because it is actually timeless: there was not a time that would not bring, in addition to all other, also new traps, problems and questions.
- to hold, to be true, apply[→SSKJ]
- Zakon je za vse. ― Laws apply to everyone.
- (auxiliary, present forms) Used to form preterite tense.
- (auxiliary, present forms followed by l-participle) Used to form pluperfect tense.
- (auxiliary, future forms) Used to form future tense.
- (auxiliary, conditional form) Used to form present conditional mood.
- (auxiliary, conditional form followed by l-participle) Used to form preterite conditional mood.
- (auxiliary) Used to form passive voice.
Usage notes
This verb is very hard to translate in English as it can form many specific formations that are not present in English and often require complete restructuring of the sentence. Additionally, it also has many irregularities and additional forms regarding conjugation. Both of these are detailed here.
Impersonal be
Impersonal be can form many specific forms that often have to be translated together with the surrounding words, often changing the whole structure of a sentence:
- Očitno je bilo, da ni imel pojma o tem, kar govori. ― It was clear that he had no idea about what he was telling.
- Veliko kruha je še. ― There is a lot of bread (left)
- Strah me je. ― I am scared.
- Žal mi je bilo. ― I regretted it.
In the first example, also given in the definitions, there is no problem translating the verb as the impersonality can be represented by impersonal it. In the second example, the form there be can be used to convey the meaning. However, in the last two examples, translation is not that simple.
In the third example, word strah means "fear" (noun), me means "I" (accusative case) and je is the impersonal form of biti. Therefore, if one would literally translate this sentence, it would sound "Fear me is", which would not be understandable. In this case, the correct translation would be to convert "I" into the subject of the sentence, correctly conjugate the verb "be" and find a suitable adjective that would convey the same meaning, in this case "scared".
In the fourth example, žal means "unfortunately", mi means "I" (dative case), and je bilo is the preterite impersonal form biti. In this case, the verb has to be changed to the one that conveys the same meaning, and I has to be again converted into the subject.
These forms are not separate verbs as these forms are quite common and most of them are easily translatable (Bilo je mrzlo. ― It was cold.). This kind of untranslatable formations only appears in cases where dative or accusative are present and can in some cases also extend to the personal be, e.g. Same kosti so ga. ― He is skinny. (literally, “The bones are him.”), which is easier to understand, but still weird to say.
This problem is similar to that in German, e.g. with the word kalt.
Additional usage notes regarding conjugation
The verb has three additional forms that are not common for other verbs: future forms, negative present indicative forms and conditional forms.
The future forms bear no stress when the verb is used as an auxiliary verb and stressed when it is a full-lexical form of the verb. In common speech, however, it is common to also form the future tense as with any other verb, i.e. unstressed forms followed by l-participle (bom bil). This form is not considered to be correct by SP[→SP]. In some dialects, future forms also have its special negative form, naum/noum/nbom.
The conditional form is used only as an auxiliary verb, except in cases with ellipsis (sense 5). Even when one wants to form conditional of biti, l-participle has to be included (bi bil). The verb also has no distinction between present and past conditional; both use only one l-participle. It usually bears no stress, but in negative form, the stress can be transferred from ne (ne bȉ), however the more common form is as usual (nȅ bi).
Present forms are stressed as a full-lexical verb and unstressed as auxiliary verb.
All unstressed forms can also bear stress when they have the stress in the sentence.
Conjugation
Class I, accentual type IIC (accent is on different vowels in infinitive and present indicative), imperfective
Infinitive bíti (ø-ti), irregular accent, suppletive, additional form for conditional
Present stem səm (-ø-m), athematic, irregular accent, suppletive, special future and negative present forms
Derived terms
See also
Etymology 2
From Proto-Slavic *biti, from Proto-Balto-Slavic *bī́ˀtei, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyh₂-.
Pronunciation
Verb
bíti impf
- to beat (to hit, to strike)
- 2019 February 25, “Žena je po nasvetu psihologa udarila svojega moža. Mož tepe svojo ženo, ali Pazite se sadista v hiši! Možni dejavniki tveganja za pojav agresije”, in Kormeshka, retrieved 8 February 2023:
- Če mož redno bije svojo ženo, potem morate najti način, kako ga ustaviti.
- If a man is regularly beating his wife, you have to find a way to stop him.
- to beat (to hit repeatedly, but not necessarily in rhythm)
- 2023 February 8 (last accessed), “KAKO JESENI POLEPŠATI SVOJ DOM IN SE POČUTITI SREČNEGA”, in Planet design:
- Dajmo torej nekaj predlogov, ki bodo hiši dali vitalnost , z majhnimi in velikimi okraski, ki lahko olepšajo in poskrbijo, da se počutimo vedno dejavne, tudi kadar zunaj dež bije po oknih.
- Let's therefore give some suggestions, which will give your house vitality, with small and big decorations, which can embellish and make sure that we feel active, even when the rain is beating on the windows.
- (usually reflexive) to fight
- 2023, Ivica Flis Smaka, “Dodajmo kakovost življenju”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), retrieved 8 February 2023:
- In mi vsi nenehno bijemo bitko z zahrbtnim in neizprosnim sovražnikom, ki mu je ime staranje.
- And we all are constantly fighting a battle with a treacherous and unrelenting enemy, which is called ageing.
- to strike
- Ura je bila tri četrt. ― The clock was striking quarter to [some full hour].
- (impersonal) Used to tell time[→SSKJ]
- Osem je bilo. ― It was eight o'clock.
- (archaic) to play an instrument
- 1863, Janez Leon, Levretanske pridige, Klagenfurt, page 20:
- In slišal sem glas od neba, kakor šum veliko vod, in kakor bobnenje velikega gromenja, in ta glas, katerega sem jaz slišal, je bil kakor citarjev, ki na svoje citre bijejo…
- And I heard the voice from the sky, like the sound of many rivers, and like a grumble of a big thunder, and this voice, which I have heard before, was like that from men which play their zithers.
- (literary) to spread[→SSKJ]
- (reflexive) to contadict[→SSKJ]
- (rare, archaic) to drop, to fall
- 1862, “Posnetek iz novih postav”, in Novice kmetijskin, rokodelnih in narodskih stvari, (20), Ljubljana, page 434:
- Na kogar bíje sum, da je storil hudodelstvo, na ktero je postavljena petletna ali še daljša ječa, tacega je treba bilo po sedaj veljavnem redu kazenske pravde zaprtega preiskovati in izpraševati; po novi postavi pa sme viša sodna gosposka tudi temu dovoliti, da ostane na svobodi ali ne zaprt, ako varščino dá ali pa poroka postavi, kakor je bilo gori zapovedano
- Onto whom falls the suspicion that he had done an evil deed, for which the penalty is five or more years, they had to be under the currently standing crime law inspected and questioned locked up; the new law stipulates that the higher-ranked judge can allow them to stay free and not locked up as well if he puts up the bail or the jury's opinion is what is mentioned above.
Conjugation
Class I, accentual type IIA (accent is directly before infinitive ending and not directly before present indicative endings), imperfective
Infinitive bíti (ø-ti)
Present stem bȋjem (je-m)
Derived terms
- biti plat zvona
- biti v oči
- biti žogo
- bítje
- izbíjati
- izbíti
- izpodbíjati
- izpodbíti
- koliko bije ura
- nabíjati
- nabíti
- nabȍj
- obíti
- odbíjati
- odbȋtek
- odbíti
- odbȍj
- odbọ̑jka
- pobíjati
- pobíti
- pobȋtost
- pobȍj
- podbíti
- prebíjati
- prebíti
- prebȍj
- pribíjati
- pribíti
- razbijáč
- razbíjati
- razbíti
- razbitína
- spodbíjati
- spodbíti
- srebíti
- ubijȃlec
- ubíjati
- ubíti
- ubȍj
- vbíti
- zabijáč
- zabíjati
- zabíti
- zbíti
Further reading
- “biti”, in Slovarji Inštituta za slovenski jezik Frana Ramovša ZRC SAZU, portal Fran
- “biti”, in Termania, Amebis
- See also the general references
Turkish
Alternative forms
Etymology
Inherited from Proto-Turkic *bitig (“inscription”)
Noun
biti (definite accusative bitiyi, plural bitiler)
Further reading
- “biti”, in Turkish dictionaries, Türk Dil Kurumu
Welsh
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- (North Wales) IPA(key): /ˈbɪtɪ/
- (South Wales) IPA(key): /ˈbɪti/
Preposition
biti
- alternative form of obeutu (“about”)
Adverb
biti
- alternative form of obeutu (“about”)
See also
- ambiti (“about”)
West Makian
Pronunciation
Verb
biti
References
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