smanjiti

Smanjiti is a verb used in several South Slavic languages, notably Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian, meaning to cause something to become smaller or to reduce its amount or degree. It is commonly used with actions and measures such as costs, emissions, risk, or speed, and appears in economic, environmental, and policy contexts as well as everyday speech. For example, one may smanjiti troškove (reduce costs), smanjiti emisije (reduce emissions), or smanjiti brzinu (reduce speed).

Etymology and forms: The word derives from the root manj- meaning less, with the prefix s- contributing a sense of bringing something to a smaller amount. The base form is the perfective infinitive smanjiti, while the imperfective counterpart is smanjivati. The noun form smanjenje means a reduction or decrease. Imperative forms commonly include smanji (singular) and smanjite (plural).

Usage notes: Smanjiti is transitive and typically requires a direct object specifying what is being reduced. It is frequently found in policy and business language, but also appears in everyday conversation whenever a reduction is discussed. In many contexts, it can be substituted by synonyms such as umanjiti or sniziti, depending on nuance and regional preference.

Examples: Governments may smanjiti public debt or smanjiti energetsko potrošnju; companies may smanjiti troškove proizvodnje or smanjiti emisije CO2. In everyday speech one might say, “Moramo smanjiti potrošnju struje,” meaning we must reduce electricity consumption.

See also: umanjiti, sniziti, snižiti.