Croatian/Main Contents/Level 2/Lesson 3

Verbs in the present tense of Croatian are simpler than those of English. Pišem can mean I write, I do write, or I am writing. In the present tense, verbs can be categorized into three basic types, as: znati, raditi, pisati. As it is difficult to distinguish which category a verb belongs to, it is often given in the infinitive and present forms. For most verbs, the present forms can be deduced from the first person singular (exceptions: biti, htjeti, moći). The infinitive and the first person singular present form are the so-called "principal forms" of a Croatian verb.

To form verbs in the present tense, if the first person singular present is not known:
Start with the infinitive: znati
Remove the final three letters: znati = zn + -a + -ti = zn-
Add the appropriate endings, i.e.: (ja) znam

The best way is to memorize the 1st person singular to create the other forms without any problems.

Verbs like znati (principal form: -am)

znati, to know

Pronouns	Verb Forms
ja	znam
ti	znaš
on/ono/ona	zna
mi	znamo
vi	znate
oni/one/ona	znaju

Verbs like raditi (principal form: -im)

raditi, to work, to do

Pronouns	Verb Forms
ja	radim
ti	radiš
on/ono/ona	radi
mi	radimo
vi	radite
oni/one/ona	rade

Verbs like pisati (principal form: -jem)

pisati, to write

Pronouns	Verb Forms
ja	pisjem (s+j=>š) pišem
ti	pisješ (s+j=>š) pišeš
on/ono/ona	pisje (s+j=>š) piše
mi	pisjemo (s+j=>š) pišemo
vi	pisjete (s+j=>š) pišete
oni/one/ona	pisju (s+j=>š) pišu

Verbs like ići (principal form: -em)

ići, to go
ići = id + -ti = id-

Pronouns	Verb Forms
ja	idem
ti	ideš
on/ono/ona	ide
mi	idemo
vi	idete
oni/one/ona	idu

Infinitive

It ends on -ti or -ći

-TI: raditi, to work; spavati, to sleep; igrati, to play; jesti, to eat; trčati, to run; ubiti, to kill; tražiti, to search; piti, to drink;

-ĆI: ići, to go; teći, to flow; reći, to say; moći, to be able to, can;

Pronouns (accusative form)

In Croatian language reflexive pronouns have 2 forms: shorter and longer. It is often better to use shorter form than longer one. Longer ones can sometimes be used on the beginning of a sentence while short forms can't.

Pronouns	Accusative form	Shorter
ja	mene	me
ti	tebe	te
on/ona/ono	njega/nju/njega	ga/ju/ga or nj/je/nj
mi	nas
vi	vas
oni/one/ona	njih	ih

Here is an example:
Vidim je. - I see her.

Pronoun drop

Croatian, like all other Slavic languages and the Romance ones as well, is a pro-drop language. This means that personal pronouns (I, you, etc.) are omitted from most sentences. Because the verb stem ending clearly indicates who performs the action, it is not necessary to put pronouns, unless it is for emphasis.

For example: Razumijem hrvatski., I understand Croatian.
From this sentence, we know that the speaker is speaking in the first person singular.

Exceptions to pro-drop:

1. For emphasis, e.g.,

Tko zna odgovor?, Who knows the answer?

Ja znam!, I know

1. Two verbs htjeti and biti have longer forms that are used as answers to questions. They can be translated as "I/you/he/she/it/we/they did" or in some cases "I am/You are/He is/She is/It is/We are/They are" (when confirming identity).

	biti		htjeti
Person	Affirmative	Negative	Affirmative	Negative
Ja/I	Jesam	Nisam	Hoću	Neću (or ne ću)
Ti/You (sing.)	Jesi	Nisi	Hoćeš	Nećeš (or ne ćeš)
On,ona,ono/he,she,it	Jest	Nije	Hoće	Neće (or ne će)
Mi/we	Jesmo	Nismo	Hoćemo	Nećemo (or ne ćemo)
Vi/You (plur.)	Jeste	Niste	Hoćete	Nećete (ne ćete)
Oni,One,Ona/They	Jesu	Nisu	Hoće	Neće (or ne će)

• Negative forms of the verb htjeti can be written in two ways: neću or ne ću. I, as croatian native speaker, prefer this first form, "neću". Of course, both forms are correct.

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