moći

See also: moci, moči, Moci, and mòcì

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *moťi.

Alongside ht(j)eti, this is one of the only two Serbo-Croatian verbs to have a 1st person singular form ending in -u; "ja mogu" instead of *ja možem. This u-form is more common in other Slavic languages, such as Polish -ę, Russian -у (-u)), derived from Proto-Slavic *-ǫ. As a consequence, the 3rd person plural and 1st person singular share the same form mogu.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /môt͡ɕi/
• Hyphenation: mo‧ći

Verb

mȍći impf or pf (Cyrillic spelling мо̏ћи)

1. (intransitive) can, to be able to
2. (intransitive) may, might

Conjugation

Conjugation of moći

infinitive		moći
present verbal adverb		mȍgūći
past verbal adverb		mȍgāvši
verbal noun		—
		singular			plural
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
present		mogu (impf.) mognem (pf.)	možeš (impf.) mogneš (pf.)	može (impf.) mogne (pf.)	možemo (impf.) mognemo (pf.)	možete (impf.) mognete (pf.)	mogu (impf.) mognu (pf.)
future	future I	moći ću	moći ćeš	moći će	moći ćemo	moći ćete	moći ćē
	future II	bȕdēm mogao2	bȕdēš mogao2	bȕdē mogao2	bȕdēmo mogli2	bȕdēte mogli2	bȕdū mogli2
past	perfect	mogao sam2	mogao si2	mogao je2	mogli smo2	mogli ste2	mogli su2
	pluperfect3	bȉo sam mogao2	bȉo si mogao2	bȉo je mogao2	bíli smo mogli2	bíli ste mogli2	bíli su mogli2
	aorist	mogoh	može	može	mogosmo	mogoste	mogoše
	imperfect	mogah	mogaše	mogaše	mogasmo	mogaste	mogahu
conditional	conditional I	mogao bih2	mogao bi2	mogao bi2	mogli bismo2	mogli biste2	mogli bi2
	conditional II4	bȉo bih mogao2	bȉo bi mogao2	bȉo bi mogao2	bíli bismo mogli2	bíli biste mogli2	bíli bi mogli2
imperative		—	mozi / mogni	—	mozimo / mognimo	mozite / mognite	—
active past participle		mogao m / mogla f / moglo n			mogli m / mogle f / mogla n
passive past participle		moguć m / moguća f / moguće n			mogući m / moguće f / moguća 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.

Derived terms

• dòmoći se
• ìzmoći
• òdmoći
• pòmoći
• smȍći
• ùzmoći

Further reading

• “moći”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
• “moći”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2025
• Pero Budmani, Tomislav Maretić, editor (1904–1910), “mòći”, in Rječnik hrvatskoga ili srpskoga jezika‎^[1] (in Serbo-Croatian), volume 6, Zagreb: JAZU, page 883
• Vladimir Mažuranić (1908–1923) “moći”, in Prinosi za hrvatski pravno-povjestni rječnik‎^[2] (in Serbo-Croatian), Zagreb: Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts, page 675