praviti

praviti is a verb in South Slavic languages, most commonly Croatian, Bosnian, and Serbian. It generally means to do or to make, including the creation of something, the performance of an action, or the preparation of a task. In reflexive form it also means to pretend, as in praviti se, to act as if.

Etymology: The word is cognate across South Slavic languages and derives from a Proto-Slavic root related to making or setting things straight. Across dialects the core meaning remains “to make” or “to do.”

Conjugation and aspect: praviti is a regular imperfective verb with the infinitive ending -iti. Present tense forms are: ja pravim, ti praviš, on/ona pravi, mi pravimo, vi pravite, oni prave. The past tense is formed with the auxiliary biti and the past participle: ja sam pravio/pravila, ti si pravio/pravila, mi smo pravili, vi ste pravili, oni su pravili. The future is expressed with the auxiliary will + imperfective infinitive: ja ću praviti, ti ćeš praviti, on/ona će praviti, etc. The perfective counterpart is napraviti, used for completed acts, with forms such as ja ću napraviti or on je napravio.

Usage and examples: Praviti covers making things or performing actions, such as praviti kolače (to bake cookies), praviti doručak (to prepare breakfast), or praviti kuću (to build a house). The reflexive praviti se means to pretend, as in on se pravi važan (he pretends to be important).

Relation to other verbs: A key distinction is between praviti and napraviti. Praviti emphasizes ongoing, repeated, or habitual action, while napraviti emphasizes a completed result. Both appear in different tenses and aspects and are chosen according to whether the speaker focuses on process or outcome.