osniva

Osniva is a verb form used in Bosnian, Croatian, and Serbian, representing the third-person singular present tense of the verb osnovati, meaning to found or establish something such as a company, institution, city, or organization. For example, On osniva novu kompaniju.

The imperfective counterpart is osnivati, which describes ongoing, repeated, or customary founding actions; the perfective form is osnovati, which emphasizes the completion of the founding act. In practice, osniva can indicate a currently occurring or general statement about someone who is establishing something.

Etymology and morphology: osniva derives from the verb osnovati, built from the base related to foundation (osnova) with the standard Slavic verb-deriving suffix -ati. Osniva is the present-tense form used with a non-past time frame.

Cognates and related forms: similar verbs appear across Slavic languages with related meanings, such as Russian osnovat' (основать) and Ukrainian osnovaty (основати). These forms share a common semantic core around founding or establishing something, reflecting a shared linguistic heritage.

See also: osnovati, osnivač (founder), founder terms in Slavic language contexts.