početi

See also: početí

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• počati (Chakavian)

Etymology

From Proto-Slavic *počęti.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pǒt͡ʃeːti/
• Hyphenation: po‧če‧ti

Verb

pòčēti pf (Cyrillic spelling по̀че̄ти)

1. (intransitive) to begin, start, commence

   Počeo sam čitati svoju novu knjigu.

   I started reading my new book.

Conjugation

Conjugation of početi

infinitive		početi
present verbal adverb		—
past verbal adverb		pòčēvši
verbal noun		—
		singular			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present		počnem	počneš	počne	počnemo	počnete	počnu
future	future I	počet ću1 počeću	počet ćeš1 počećeš	počet će1 počeće	počet ćemo1 počećemo	počet ćete1 počećete	počet ćē1 počeće
	future II	bȕdēm počeo2	bȕdēš počeo2	bȕdē počeo2	bȕdēmo počeli2	bȕdēte počeli2	bȕdū počeli2
past	perfect	počeo sam2	počeo si2	počeo je2	počeli smo2	počeli ste2	počeli su2
	pluperfect3	bȉo sam počeo2	bȉo si počeo2	bȉo je počeo2	bíli smo počeli2	bíli ste počeli2	bíli su počeli2
	aorist	počeh	poče	poče	počesmo	počeste	počeše
conditional	conditional I	počeo bih2	počeo bi2	počeo bi2	počeli bismo2	počeli biste2	počeli bi2
	conditional II4	bȉo bih počeo2	bȉo bi počeo2	bȉo bi počeo2	bíli bismo počeli2	bíli biste počeli2	bíli bi počeli2
imperative		—	počni	—	počnimo	počnite	—
active past participle		počeo m / počela f / počelo n			počeli m / počele f / počela n
passive past participle		počet m / početa f / početo n			početi m / počete f / početa 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.

Related terms

• pòčinjati impf

See also

• početak
• potjecati

Further reading

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