podnijeti

Podnijeti is a verb in the South Slavic languages, primarily Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, meaning “to submit”, “to hand in”, “to present” or “to bring up”. The word is formed from the prefix pod‑ (under, towards) and the verb nizeti, itself derived from the root nesti “to carry”. In its infinitive form it appears as podnijeti, while the past participle is podnešen (masculine singular) and the present‑stem is podnosi‑.

In standard usage podnijeti is employed when a person delivers a document, request, proposal or any item that requires formal acceptance by an authority or institution. Typical contexts include legal proceedings (podnijeti tužbu – to file a lawsuit), academic settings (podnijeti rad – to submit a paper), and administrative processes (podnijeti zahtev – to submit an application). The verb can also be used figuratively to denote the act of raising an issue or argument in a discussion (podnijeti prigovor – to lodge a complaint).

Grammatically, podnijeti belongs to the class of perfective verbs, indicating a completed action. Its imperfective counterpart is podnositi, which describes ongoing or repeated submission. Conjugation follows the regular pattern for -iti verbs: ja podnesem, ti podneseš, on/ona podnese, mi podnesemo, vi podnesete, oni podnesu. The past tense is formed with the auxiliary verb biti and the past participle (ja sam podneo/podnela).

Etymologically, the term traces back to Old Slavic roots, with the prefix pod‑ reinforcing the directionality of the action toward an authority. In contemporary usage, podnijeti remains a common and essential verb in bureaucratic, legal and academic discourse across the South Slavic linguistic area.