Copyright: Grammar ®1995-96 Translation Experts


table of contents

  Croatian Grammar Reference Help Contents

©1995-1996 Translation Experts Ltd. All Rights Reserved

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Word Endings

Verbs

Cases

Nouns

Adjectives

Pronouns

Articles

Possessives

Spelling Rules

Questions

Negation

Numbers

Time

Correspondence

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pronunciation

  Alphabet and Pronunciation

No.	Capital	Small	Sign	Pronunciation Sound
1	A	a	<a>	father
2	B	c	<b>	bed
3	C	c	<ts>	ts
4	Ć	ć	<ch>	chip
5	Č	č	<tsh>	Charles
6	D	d	<d>	dept
7	Đ	đ	<j>	jazz
8	Dž	dž	<dzh>	dept+pleasure (digraph:hard j)
9	E	e	<e>	bed
10	F	f	<f>	father
11	G	g	<g>	get
12	H	h	<h>	high
13	I	i	<ee>	meet
14	J	j	<y>	boy
15	K	k	<k>	kettle
16	L	l	<l>	loud
17	Lj	lj	<ly>	loud+boy (digraph:soft l)
18	M	m	<m>	mint
19	N	n	<n>	nine
20	Nj	nj	<ny>	nine+boy (digraph:soft n)
21	O	o	<o>	bottle
22	P	p	<p>	pet
23	R	r	<r>	error (rolled)
24	S	s	<s>	sign
25	Š	š	<sh>	shall
26	T	t	<t>	tent
27	U	u	<oo>	boot
28	V	v	<v>	vet
29	Z	z	<z>	zone
30	Ž	ž	<zh>	pleasure

Stress in words

Some Croatian words are proclitic or enclitic, thus they have no accented syllable of their own. Apart from these, every word form has one accented syllable. It is accent, not stress, because pitch and length are ivolved rather than intensity. Accent can alternate in placement or contour within the paradigm of a word. There are four accents all together:

1.	short falling
2.	long falling
3.	short rising
4.	long rising


  Word Endings

Croatian is an inflected language. Grammatical relations between words are shown by changes in the endings of words. For example, Croatian for London is London in the nominative case but in London becomes u Londonu.


  Verbs

Aspect

Present Tense

Future Tenses

Past Tenses

Moods

Participles

Verbal Adverbs

Some Useful Verbs


Aspect

Croatian, as other Slavic languages, expresses the category of verbal aspect. Aspect affects a lexical item's whole paradigm; a verb is either perfective (napisati = to write = the completed action), or imperfective (pisati = to write = an ongoing action). Some verbs are bi-aspectual, for example čuti = to hear (both as completed and as ongoing sensation).


Present Tense

The most convenient way to remember the present-tense of Croatian verbs is to learn first person singular and third person plural, for example učiti = to learn; učim = I learn; uče = they learn. The other forms can be reconstructed using the following endings:

Singular		Plural
-m/uči/-m	-mo	uči/-mo
-š/uči/-š	-te	uči/-te
-0/uči/-0	No Rule	uče

The present-tense auxiliary clitic of the verbs biti and htjeti is used to form the compound tenses.

biti = to be

	Full	Clitic	Negated	2nd Present
Singular	jesam	sam	neću	budem
	jesi	si	nećeš	budeš
	jest(e)	je	neće	bude
Plural	jesmo	smo	nećemo	budemo
	jeste	ste	nećete	budete
	jesu	su	neće	budu

htjeti = want

	Full	Clitic	Negated
Plural	hoću	ću	neću
	hoćeš	ćeš	nećeš
	hoće	će	neće
Plural	hoćemo	ćemo	nećemo
	hoćete	ćete	nećete
	hoće	će	neće


Future Tenses

There are two future tenses: Future and Future 2 (used only in subordinated clauses):

Future = auxiliary clitic u with infinitive (before or after it)

raditi = to work

Singular	Plural
ću raditi/radit ću	ćemo raditi/radit ćemo
ćeš raditi/radit ćeš	ćete raditi/radit ćete
će raditi/radit će	će raditi/radit će

Future 2 = second present of to be with l participle

raditi = to work

Singular mas./fem./neut.	Plural/mas./fem./neut.
budem radio/radila/radilo	budemo radili/radile/radila
budeš radio/radila/radilo	budete radili/radile/radila
bude radio/radila/radilo	budu radili/radile/radila


Past Tenses

There are four past tenses in Croatian: perfect, pluperfect, aorist, and imperfect. The latter two are used only very rarely, and both can be supplanted by perfect.

Perfect = auxiliary clitic sam with l participle

raditi = to work

Singular mas./fem./neut.

sam radio/radila/radilo

si radio/radila/radilo

je radio/radila/radilo

Plural mas./fem./neut.

smo radili/radile/radila

ste radili/radile/radila

su radili/radile/radila

Pluperfect = perfect of to be as auxiliary with l-participle

raditi = to work

Singular mas./fem./neut.

sam bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

si bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

je bio radio/bila radila/bilo radilo

Plural mas./fem./neut.

smo bili radili/bile radile/bila radila

ste bili radili/bile radile/bila radila

su bili radili/bile radile/bila radila


Verb Moods

conditional = auxiliary bih and l participle

Singular mas./fem./neut.

bih radio/radila/radilo

bi radio/radila/radilo

bi radio/radila/radilo

Plural mas./fem./neut.

bismo radili/radile/radila

biste radili/radile/radila

bi radili/radile/radila

Imperative

Singular	inf/pres. tense stem + -o/-i/-j
	neka + present tense
Plural	inf/pres. tense stem + -mo/-imo/-jmo
	inf/pres. tense stem + -te/-ite/-jte
	neka + present tense
Singular	radi
	neka radi
Plural	radimo
	radite
	neka rade


Verb Participles

participle - used to form compound verb forms in active voice

infinitive stem +		Singular		Plural
	mas.	-o	mas.	-li
	fem.	-la	fem.	-le
	neut.	-lo	neut.	-la

passive participle - used to form passive voice

inf/present tense stem +		Singular		Plural
	mas.	-(e)n/-t	mas.	-(e)ni/-ti
	fem.	-(e)na/-ta	fem.	-(e)ne/-te
	neut.	-(e)no/-to	neut.	-(e)na/-ta


Verbal Adverbs

Past Verbal Adverb (denotes antecedent actions):

Infinitive stem + (a)vši = uradivši (having done)

Present Verbal Adverb (denotes simultaneous actions)

Third person Present Tense + ći = radeći (working)


Some Useful Verbs

English	Imperfective	Perfective
to understand	razumijevati razumijevam razumijevaju	razumjeti razumijem razumiju
to watch	gledati gledam gledaju	pogledati pogledam, pogledaju
to take	uzimati uzimam uzimaju	uzeti uzmem uzmu
to speak/say	govoriti govorim govore	kazati kažem kažu
to go	ići idem idu	poći pođem pođu
to see	gledati gledam gledaju	vidjeti vidim vide
to smile	osmjehivati se osmjehujem se osmjehuju se	osmijehnuti se osmijehnem se osmijehnu se
to do	raditi radim rade	uraditi uradim urade
to buy	kupovati kupujem kupju	kupiti kupim kupe
to meet	sretati srećem sreću	sresti sretnem sretnu
to telephone	telefonirati telefoniram telefoniraju
to answer	odgovarati odgovaram odgovaraju	odgovoriti odgovorim odgovore
to open	otvarati otvaram otvaraju	otvoriti otvorim otvore
to arrive	stizati stižem stižu	stići stignem stignu
to tell/relate	pričati pričam pričaju	ispričati ispričm ispričaju
to read	čitati čitam čitaju	pročitati pročitati pročitaju
to return	vraćati se vraćam se vraćju se	vratiti se vratim se vrate se


  Cases

General Information

Genitive

Dative

Prepositional or Locative

Instrumental


case general information

General Information

Croatian adjectives, like nouns, have different endings to show gender, case, singular or plural. Adjectives always have to be in the same case as their accompanying nouns.


Genitive

1. The genitive case literally means "of somebody" or "of something" like a "glass of wine" or "the brother of Milan."

2. The genitive case is the most useful case in Croatian after the nominative and accusative.  It is used for four main purposes:

1.	counting
2.	possession
3.	after many prepositions
4.	in negative constructions


Dative

Two common prepositions take the dative case:

Prepositions	Use
Croatian	English	Croatian	English
prema	towards	prema kući/meni	towards the house/me
ka	towards	ka njemu/nama	towards him/us


Prepositional or Locative

The three prepositions that are most common all require the prepositional (locative)

case:

u	in
na	on
o	about

For example, the answer to "Where is he?"(Gdje je on) might be "He is in Zagreb" (On je u Zagrebu): "He is" = On; "in" = u, and "Zagreb"= Zagrebu.


Instrumental

The primary meaning of the instrumental case is "by means of."

Uses of Instrumental

1. The primary meaning of the instrumental case is "by means of."

English	Croatian
She wrote with (by means of) a pencil.	Ona piše olovkom.
In the above. the -om in olovkom (pencil) = by means of.

2. After six prepositions:

English	Croatian
with	s(a)
behind	za
between	među
above	nad
in front of/before	pred
under	pod

For example:

English	Croatian
Meet (get to know) Mira.	Upoznaj se s Mirom.


  Nouns

Noun Gender

Case Ending


Noun Gender

Croatian nouns all belong to one of three different genders: masculine, feminine or neuter (depending upon the last letter). Noun gender is important because it determines how one forms the plural and the various cases as well as the ending of accompanying adjectives.

1. Most masculine nouns end in a consonant:

Croatian	grad	brat	London
English	town/city	brother	London
Please note that the pronoun for "he" also ends with a consonant.

2. Most feminine nouns end -a:

Croatian	žena	voda	Marija	zemlja	rijeka
English	woman	water	Mary	country	river

Please note that ona (she) also ends with -a.

3. Most neuter nouns end with -o or -e:

Croatian	jutro	polje	pismo
English	morning	field	letter
4. Nouns ending with an -a denotes masculine:

Croatian	sluga	Vanja	tata
English	manservant	Vanya	dad


  Case Ending of Nouns

Masculine Nouns

Neuter Nouns

Feminine Nouns ending in -a

Feminine Nouns ending in -o


Masculine Nouns

Singular

	city	husband	window
Nom.	grad	muž	prozor
Gen.	grada	muža	prozora
Dat.	gradu	mužu	prozoru
Acc.	grad	muža	prozor
Voc.	grade	mužu	prozore
Loc.	gradu	mužu	prozoru
Inst.	gradom	mužem	prozorom

Plural

Nom-Voc	gradovi	muževi	prozori
Gen	gradova	muževa	prozora
Dat-Inst-Loc	gradovima	muževima	prozorima
Acc	gradove	muževe	prozore


Neuter Nouns

Singular

	place	heart	study
Nom-Voc-Acc	mjesto	srce	učenje
Gen.	mjesta	srca	učenja
Dat-Loc	mjestu	srcu	učenju
Inst	mjestom	srcem	učenjem

Plural

Nom-Voc-Acc	mjesta	srca	učenja
Gen	mjesta	srca	učenja
Dat-Loc-Inst	mjestima	srcima	učenjima


Feminine Nouns ending in -a

Singular

	woman/ wife	soul	manservant
Nom.	žena	duša	sluga
Gen.	žene	duše	sluge
Dat.	ženi	duši	sluzi
Acc.	ženu	dušu	slugu
Voc..	ženo	dušo	slugo
Loc.	ženi	duši	sluzi
Inst.	ženom	dušom	slugom

Plural

Nom-Acc	žene	duše	sluge
Gen	žene	duše	sluga,slugu
Dat-Loc-Inst	ženama	dušama	slugama
Voc	žene	dušo	slugo


feminine nouns ending in -0

Feminine Nouns ending in -o

Singular

	bone
Nom.	kost
Gen.	kosti
Dat.	kosti
Acc.	kost
Voc..	kosti
Loc.	kosti
Inst.	kosti

Plural

Nom-Voc-Acc	kosti
Gen	kostiju kosti
Dat-Inst-Loc	kostima


  Articles

Croatian does not use equivalents of the English definite or indefinite articles a or the.

Croatian	Ja sam Englez.
English	I am an Englishman. (literally "I am Englishman")


  Possessives

In Croatian, it is normal to omit the possessive if the possessor is clear from the context. In other contexts you need to specify ownership:

Nominative	Masculine	Feminine	Neuter
my	moj	moja	moje
your (familiar)	tvoj	tvoja	tvoje
our	naš	naša	naše
your (polite/plural)	vaš	vaša	vaše

Accusative Forms

Masculine Inanimate	Masculine Animate	Feminine	Neuter
moj	mog(a)	moju	moje
tvoj	tvog(a)	tvoju	tvoje
naš	našeg(a)	našu	naše
vaš	vašeg(a)	vašu	vaše

Plural Forms

Singular	Plural
moj (my)	moji,e,a
tvoj (your -- familiar)	tvoji,e,a
naš (our)	naši,e,a
vaš (your -- polite/plural)	vaši,e,a


  Adjectives

Case Endings

Ordinal Numbers

Comparatives


Adjective Case Endings

Croatian adjectives, like nouns, have different endings to show gender, case, singular or plural. Adjectives must always match the same case of the accompanying noun.

Masculine Adjectives

Singular	new	Plural	new
Nom-Voc	nov,novi	Nom-Voc	novi
Gen	novog(a)	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novom(e,u)	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	Nom or Gen	Acc	nove
Inst	novim

Neuter Adjectives

Singular	new	Plural	new
Nom-Voc	novo	Nom-Voc	nova
Gen	novog(a)	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novom(e,u)	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	novo	Acc	nova
Inst	novim

Feminine Adjectives

Singular	new	Plural	new
Nom-Voc	nova	Nom-Voc	nove
Gen	nove	Gen	novih
Dat-Loc	novoj	Dat-Loc-Inst	novim(a)
Acc	novu	Acc	nove
Inst	novom


Ordinal Numbers

English	Croatian	English	Croatian
first	prvi,a,o	sixteenth	šesnaesti,a,o
second	drugi,a,o	seventeenth	sedamnaesti,a,o
third	treći,a,e	eighteenth	osamnaesti,a,o
fourth	četvrti,a,o	nineteenth	devetnaesti,a,o
fifth	peti,a,o	twentieth	dvadeseti,a,o
sixth	šesti,a,o	twenty-first	dvadeset prvi,a,o
seventh	sedmi,a,o	thirtieth	trideseti,a,o
eighth	osmi,a,o	fortieth	čtrdeseti,a,o
ninth	deveti,a,o	fiftieth	pedeseti,a,o
tenth	deseti,a,o	sixtieth	šezdeseti,a,o
eleventh	jedanaesti,a,o	seventieth	sedamdeseti,a,o
twelfth	dvanaesti,a,o	eightieth	osamdeseti,a,o
thirteenth	trinaesti,a,o	ninetieth	devedeseti,a,o
fourteenth	četrnaesti,a,o	hundredth	stoti,a,o
fifteenth	petnaesti,a,o


Comparatives

English Adjective	Croatian Adjective	English  Comparative	Croatian  Comparative (also for adverbs ending in -o -e)
good	dobar,bra,bro	better	bolji,a,e
cheap	jeftin,a,o	cheaper	jeftiniji,a,e
easy	lak,a,o	easier	lakši,a,e
large	velik,a,o	larger	veći,a,e
little	malen,a,o	less	manji,a,e
long	dug,a,o	longer	duži,a,e
much	mnogo	more	više
beautiful	lijep,a,o	more beautiful	ljepši,a,e
difficult	težak,ška,ško	more difficult	teži,a,e
expensive	skup,a,o	more expensive	skuplji,a,e
interesting	zanimljiv,a,o	more interesting	zanimljiviji,a,e
often	često	more often	češće
nice	prijatno	nicer	prijatnije
quick	brz,a,o	quicker	brži,a,e
slow	spor,a,o	slower	sporiji,a,e
small	malen,a,o	smaller	manji,a,e
bad	loš,a,o	worse	gori,a,e


  Pronouns

Personal Pronouns

Dative

Accusative and Genitive

Prepositional or Locative

Instrumental


Personal Pronouns

Croatian	English
ja	I
ti	you (familiar form; used to address family, friend or child)
on	he
ona	she
ono	it
mi	we
Vi, vi	you (polite or plural form; used to address more than one person, unknown person)
oni	they


Pronouns in Dative

The primary meaning of the dative case is "to" a person:

English	Croatian
to me	meni, mi
to you (familiar)	tebi, ti
to him	njemu, mu
to her	njoj, joj
to it	njemu, mu
to us	nama, nam
to you (polite/plural)	vama, vam
to them	njima, im


Pronouns in Accusative and Genitive

Nominative	Accusative and Genitive
Croatian	English	Croatian	English
ja	I	mene, me	me
ti	you (familiar)	tebe, te	you (familiar)
on	he	njega, ga	him
ona	she	nju, ju	her
ono	it	njega, ga	it
mi	we	nas	us
vi/Vi	you (polite/plural)	vas/Vas	you (polite/plural)
oni	they	njih, ih	them


Pronouns in Prepositional or Locative

Prepositional

Croatian	Croatian	English
meni	o meni	about me
tebi	o tebi	about you (familiar)
njemu	na njemu	on him
njoj	o njoj	about her
njemu	u njemu	in it
nama	o nama	about us
vama	o vama	about you (polite/plural)
njih	o njima	about them


pronouns in instrumental

Instrumental

Nominative		Instrumental
Croatian	English	Croatian
ja	I	mnom
ti	you (familiar)	tobom
on	he	njim
ona	she	njom
ono	it	njim
mi	we	nama
vi/Vi	you (polite/plural)	vama/Vama
oni	they	njima

Example:

English	Croatian
with him	s njim
between us	među nama
in front of you	pred tobom


  Spelling Rules

The basic prinicple is one sound to one letter correspondence. The only exeptions are digraphs lj =soft l; nj = soft n and dž = hard j.


  Questions

Questions to which there is a "yes" or "no" answer are formed using the particle li. For example:

	English	Croatian
Statement	He knows	On zna.
Question	Does he know?	Zna li on?

Question Words

These are questions which contain question words such as what (što), who (tko), when (kada), why (zašto), where (gdje) and how (kako), for example:

English	What is this?
Croatian	Što je to?
English	Who here speaks English?
Croatian	Tko ovdje govori engleski?
English	What (how) are you called?
Croatian	Kako se zoveš?
English	Why does he not know?
Croatian	Zašto on ne zna?
English	Where does Milan work?
Croatian	Gdje Milan radi?


  Negation

Not = ne is placed in front of whatever is negated.


  Numbers

Number	Croatian	Number	Croatian
0	nula	18	osamnaest
1	jedan	19	devetnaeset
2	dva	20	dvadeset
3	tri	21	dvadeset jedan
4	četiri	22	dvadeset dva
5	pet	23	dvadeset tri
6	šest	24	dvadeset četiri
7	sedam	25	dvadesest pet
8	osam	30	trideset
9	devet	31	trideset jedan
10	deset	40	četrdeset
11	jedanaest	50	pedeset
12	dvanaest	60	šezdeset
13	trinaest	100	sto
14	četrnaest	1000	tisuća
15	petnaest	2000	dvije tisuće
16	šesnaest
17	sedamnaest


time of day;days of the weeks;months;divisons of the day

  Time

Time of Day

English	Croatian
What is the time?	Koliko je sati?
It is one o'clock.	Jedan, je sati.
It is 2, 3, 4 o'clock.	Sada je dva, tri, četiri sata.
It is six o'clock.	Šest je sati.
It is five past one.	Sada je jedan i pet.
It is now a quarter past two.	Sada je dva dva i četvrt.
It is twenty-two minutes past four.	Četiri i dvadeset dva.
It is half past ten.	Pola jedanaest.
It is now half past two.	Sada je pola tri.
When?	Kada?
At three o'clock.	U tri sata.
At half past two.	U pola tri.
5.30 am	pola šest (pet i trideset)
9.15 pm (21.15)	devet i petnaest (dvadeset jedan i petnaest)
The train arrived at 11.37 pm.	Vlak je došao u jedanaest i trideset sedam.

Divisions of the Day in Spoken Croatian

English		Croatian
'night'	midnight to 4 am	noć
'morning'	4 am to 9 am	jutro
'morning'	9 am to midday	prijepodne
'afternoon'	midday to 6 pm	poslijepodne
'evening'	6 pm to midnight	večer

Months

Only February is feminine, all other months are masculine:

English	Croatian	Croatian
	Nominative	Genitive
January	siječanj	siječnja
February	veljača	veljače
March	ožujak	ožujka
April	travanj	travnja
May	svibanj	svibnja
June	lipanj	lipnja
July	srpanj	srpnja
August	kolovoz	kolovoza
September	rujan	rujna
October	listopad	listopada
November	studeni	studenog
December	prosinac	prosinca

Days of the Week

English	Croatian
Monday	ponedjeljak
Tuesday	utorak
Wednesday	srijeda
Thursday	četvrtak
Friday	petak
Saturday	subota
Sunday	nedjelja


letters

  Correspondence

Opening

Writing To:	English	Croatian
a friend	Dear Marija,	Draga Marija!
a friend	Hello Marija,	Bog Marija!
president businessman unknown person	Dear Mr. Marković	Cijenjeni gospodine Marković!
a businesswoman	Dear Mrs Marković	Cijenjena gospođo Marković!

Closing

Writing To:	English	Croatian
a close friend	love,	Voli te,
a close friend	I kiss,	Pusa od,
a friend	Good-bye,	Zdravo,
formal letter	Yours sincerely,	Sa poštovanjem,

All forms of the pronoun Vi are capitalized (out of respect).