Bosnian (BCS): Does "i" always mean "and?"

[musicalchef]

I've been noticing a lot of sentences that have "i" and it doesn't seem to mean "and." It seems almost like a filler to me, kind of how "keh" is used in Farsi sometimes. Are there any rules for this? Here is an example from a thread on this forum, where "i" is used twice: "nije lose moze i bolje. pa i ja cu tamo na letovanje sa drustvom najverovatnije!" translated as: "Well it's not bad, but could be better. Most probably I'm going there too on a summer vacation with my friends (crew)!" Here is another from the forum: "možda nekad i bude" translated as "It may be one day though."

Hvala

 

[dudasd]

Apart from its essential meaning, "i" can be also used and translated as "even" or "also". It's a kind of "intesifier". In your first example: "Nije loše, može i bolje", try to see it as "also", but very strong "also". "It's not bad, (but) could be better ALSO." In your second example, try to see "i" as "even": Maybe it can even happen one day."

A good example of its intesifying role you can see in sentences like this:

I pričao sam mu, i molio ga, ali ne vredi.
I was talking to him, I was begging him, but no use.

 

[venenum]

The second "i" in the first example sentence: "i ja ću tamo..." means "too": I'm going there, too.

 

[musicalchef]

Thanks, that makes sense. I've also seen the expression "sam i ja," and occasionally "ti i si." Is the first one something like "me, myself, and I?"

 

[Athaulf]

Thanks, that makes sense. I've also seen the expression "sam i ja," and occasionally "ti i si." Is the first one something like "me, myself, and I?"

Neither of these is a self-contained expression that would make any sense out of context. The fragment sam i ja could be a part of many different expressions with totally different meanings, just like e.g. the fragment "I'm..." in English means nothing specific out of context, since it can be a part of, say, both "I'm fine" and "I'm going", and can't be used in isolation.

As for the ti i si, I can't even think of a sentence in which this order of words would be used. Maybe you have in mind i ti si, which means "you are too" (or some other similar things, again depending on the contest).