Misliti

Misliti is a verb used in several South Slavic languages, most prominently Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian, and Slovenian. It means “to think” or “to consider,” and it is used to express beliefs, judgments, or mental processes. In everyday usage, it often introduces opinions with the conjunction da, as in Mislim da je to istina (I think that is true). It can also take phrases such as misliti na nekoga (to think of someone) and misliti o nečemu (to think about something).

Etymology and related forms: Misliti is derived from Proto-Slavic and shares a common root with the noun mysl or misao, meaning thought. Cognates appear across Slavic languages, for example Polish myśleć, Czech myslet, Slovene misliti, and Russian мыслить (myslit’). The verb forms in each language reflect standard Slavic verb conjugation patterns.

Conjugation and usage notes: In Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian, present tense forms are mislim, misliš, misli, mislimo, mislite, misle. The past tense is formed with a past participle (mislio/mislila/mislilo) plus a personal auxiliary (e.g., sam, si, je, smo, ste, su), so examples include Mislio sam (I thought) or Mislila sam (I thought, feminine). The adverbial participle misljevši (thinking, having thought) is rarely used but exists. The verb commonly takes subordinate clauses introduced by da: Mislim da će doći. Additional pairs include razmišljati (to reflect/think deeply) and promisliti (to think something over).

See also: misao, mišljenje, razmišljati.