letjeti

Serbo-Croatian

Alternative forms

• lèteti (Ekavian)
• lèćeti (dialectal)
• lètiti (Ikavian, dialectal Ijekavian and Ekavian)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *letěti. First attested in the 16th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /lětjeti/
• Hyphenation: le‧tje‧ti

Verb

lètjeti impf (Cyrillic spelling лѐтјети) (Ijekavian)

1. (intransitive) to fly (of birds etc., or in an aircraft)

   visoko let(j)eti ― to fly high

   Ptica može let(j)eti. ― A bird can fly.

   Mrzim let(j)eti/da letim. ― I hate flying.

   Mora biti predivno let(j)eti nebom. ― It must be wonderful flying through the sky.

   Zašto se bojite let(j)eti/da letite? ― Why are you afraid of flying?

2. (intransitive) to pass quickly, fly (especially of time)

   Vr(ij)eme leti. ― The time flies.

3. (intransitive) to rush, hurry

   Letim s jednog kraja grada na drugi. ― I'm rushing from one corner of the city to another.

4. (intransitive) to fly through something (as if thrown)

   Kamenje je let(j)elo zrakom. ― Stones were flying through the air.

Conjugation

Conjugation of letjeti

infinitive		letjeti
present verbal adverb		lètēći
past verbal adverb		—
verbal noun		lètēnje
		singular			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present		letim	letiš	leti	letimo	letite	lete
future	future I	letjet ću1 letjeću	letjet ćeš1 letjećeš	letjet će1 letjeće	letjet ćemo1 letjećemo	letjet ćete1 letjećete	letjet ćē1 letjećē
	future II	bȕdēm letio2	bȕdēš letio2	bȕdē letio2	bȕdēmo letjeli2	bȕdēte letjeli2	bȕdū letjeli2
past	perfect	letio sam2	letio si2	letio je2	letjeli smo2	letjeli ste2	letjeli su2
	pluperfect3	bȉo sam letio2	bȉo si letio2	bȉo je letio2	bíli smo letjeli2	bíli ste letjeli2	bíli su letjeli2
	imperfect	lećah	lećaše	lećaše	lećasmo	lećaste	lećahu
conditional	conditional I	letio bih2	letio bi2	letio bi2	letjeli bismo2	letjeli biste2	letjeli bi2
	conditional II4	bȉo bih letio2	bȉo bi letio2	bȉo bi letio2	bíli bismo letjeli2	bíli biste letjeli2	bíli bi letjeli2
imperative		—	leti	—	letimo	letite	—
active past participle		letio m / letjela f / letjelo n			letjeli m / letjele f / letjela 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

• izlètjeti
• letelica
• nadlètjeti
• nalètjeti
• odlètjeti
• podlètjeti
• polètjeti
• prelètjeti
• razlètjeti
• salètjeti
• slètjeti
• ulètjeti
• uzlètjeti
• zalètjeti

References

• “letjeti”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2026
• “letjeti”, in Речник српскохрватскога књижевног језика [Rečnik srpskohrvatskoga književnog jezika, Dictionary of the Serbo-Croatian Literary Language] (in Serbo-Croatian), Друго фототипско издање [Second Phototype Edition], volume 3, Novi Sad; Zagreb: Matica srpska; Matica hrvatska, 1967–1976, published 1990, page 195