Osnovnim

Osnovnim is a grammatical form found in several South Slavic languages, including Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian, and Montenegrin. It is the instrumental case form of the adjective osnovni, which means basic, foundational, or fundamental. The form osnovnim is used to modify nouns when expressing means, methods, principles, or other means by which something is done.

In usage, osnovnim typically appears with nouns in the instrumental case to convey “with basic [something]” or “by basic [principles/means].” Examples include phrases such as osnovnim sredstvima, meaning with basic means, and osnovnim pravilima, meaning by basic rules. The exact form may vary with the noun’s gender and number, but the instrumental singular or plural function remains the core grammatical role of osnovnim.

Etymology and relation to other forms are straightforward: osnovnim derives from osnovni, whose root is osnov-, related to the noun osnova, meaning foundation or base. This relationship mirrors similar adjective-noun constructions in the languages, where osnova forms the semantic core of basic or foundational concepts. While osnovnim is primarily a grammatical form, it appears across legal, academic, and technical texts to qualify actions, guidelines, or resources as basic or foundational.

See also: osnovni, osnova, basic in other Slavic languages.