Misplaced Pages

Croatian grammar: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 12:49, 26 September 2008 view sourceIvan Štambuk (talk | contribs)Extended confirmed users8,292 edits cats, removed irrelevant see alsos← Previous edit Latest revision as of 09:17, 13 July 2010 view source Kwamikagami (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users, Template editors475,520 editsm Protected Croatian grammar: Edit warring / Content dispute: page merged per consensus; to split again, we need RfC on splitting ( (indefinite) (indefinite)) 
(106 intermediate revisions by 46 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
#REDIRECT ]
'''Croatian grammar''' is very similar to other languages of the ] and descends from ] which was used until the 16th century. It differs little from the language used in ], ], and ]. There are also minor differences with the ] and ] dialects spoken in Croatia.

Croatian has three ] (masculine, feminine, and neuter), a relatively large number of ]s (7) but few verb tenses.

This page outlines the ] of Croatian grammar.

==Nouns==
The two most important things regarding nouns in Croatian are the seven cases and the so-called "fleeting 'a'".

'''Noun endings'''
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Case
! Masculine
! Feminine 1 (ending in 'a') / 2 (ending in consonant)
! Neuter 1 (ending in 'o') / 2 (ending in 'e')
|-
| ]
| -
| -a / -
| -e / -o
|-
| ]
| -a
| -e / -i
| -a / -na or -ta
|-
| ]
| -u
| -i -/ -i
| -u / -nu or -tu
|-
| ]
| -
| -u / -
| -o / -e
|-
| ]
| -e (-u after ])
| -o
| -o / -e
|-
| ]
| -u
| -i
| -u / -nu or -tu
|-
| ]
| -om
| -om / -i or -u*
| -om / -nom or -tom
|}

===Examples of declensions===

'''Singular'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Case
! Masculine
! Feminine 1/2
! Neuter 1/2
|-
| Nominative
| stol (''table'')
| žena (''woman'') / ljubav (''love'')
| selo (''village'') / rame (''shoulder'')
|-
| Genitive
| stola
| žene / ljubavi
| sela / ramena
|-
| Dative
| stolu
| ženi / ljubavi
| selu / ramenu
|-
| Accusative
| stol
| ženu / ljubav
| selo / rame
|-
| Vocative
| stole
| ženo / ljubavi
| selo / rame
|-
| Locative
| stolu
| ženi / ljubavi
| selu / ramenu
|-
| Instrumental
| stolom
| ženom / ljubavi ''or'' ljubavlju
| selom / ramenom
|}

'''Plural'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Case
! Masculine
! Feminine 1/2
! Neuter 1/2
|-
| Nominative
| stolovi (''tables'')
| žene (''women'') / ljubavi (''loves'')
| sela / (''villages'') / ramena (''shoulders'')
|-
| Genitive
| stolova
| žena / ljubavi
| sela / ramena
|-
| Dative
| stolovima
| ženama / ljubavima
| selima / ramenima
|-
| Accusative
| stolove
| žene / ljubavi
| sela / ramena
|-
| Vocative
| stolovi
| žene / ljubavi
| sela / ramena
|-
| Locative
| stolu
| ženima / ljubavima
| selima / ramenima
|-
| Instrumental
| stolovima
| ženama / ljubavima
| selima / ramenima
|}

==Adjectives==
Some of the declensions for adjectives are the same as for nouns, and so they might rhyme: velik'''a''' kuć'''a''' (sing. nom.), velik'''u''' kuć'''u''' (sing. acc.). Others might be confusing: jednim klikom (with one click, sing. masc. instrum.).

'''Singular'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Case
! Masculine
! Feminine
! Neuter
|-
| ]
| velik (''big'')
| velika
| veliko
|-
| ]
| velikog
| velike
| velik
|-
| ]
| velikom
| velikoj
| velikom
|-
| ]
| velik
| veliku
| veliko
|-
| ]
| veliki
| velika
| veliko
|-
| ]
| velikom
| velikoj
| velikom
|-
| ]
| velikim
| velikom
| velikim
|}

'''Plural'''

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Case
! Masculine
! Feminine
! Neuter
|-
| ]
| veliki (''big'')
| velike
| velika
|-
| ]
| velikih
| velikih
| velikih
|-
| ]
| velikim
| velikim
| velikim
|-
| ]
| velike
| velike
| velika
|-
| ]
| veliki
| velike
| velika
|-
| ]
| velikim
| velikim
| velikim
|-
| ]
| velikim
| velikim
| velikim
|}

* Note: animate objects (people and animals) are treated differently in the singular masculine accusative. In this case, it is the same as singular masculine genitive. It is considered accusative even though it looks like the genitive. Exmaple: Vidim velikog psa (I see a big dog).

* Note: most adjectives ending in consonant-'a'-consonant (for example: dobar - good), the 'a' dissappears when any letter is added. Dobar becomes, for example , ''dobri, dobra, dobrog, dobru, dobrim, dobrom, dobre, ''and ''dobrih'', according to case and number.

==Verbs==
Croatian verbs are normally only conjugated in the present indicative. Other tenses and moods are require helping verbs. Much more complicated is ]: the ''perfective'' and the ''imperfecive''.

===Tense===
Verbs tenses can be ], ], ] I and II, and ].

* past uses the present of ''biti'' (to be) plus the perfect participle.
* Present uses only the indicative
* Future I uses the present of ''htjeti'' (will or to want) plus the infinitive.
* Future II uses the future of ''biti'' (the only verb with a simple future) plus the perfect participle.
* pluperfect, which is not often used, uses the composite past plus the perfect participle.

===]===
Besides the ], Croatian uses the ] and the ]. The subjuntive uses ''da'' plus the indicative. The conditional uses the ] of ''biti'' plus perfect participle.

===Verbal aspect===
{{main|Grammatical aspect}}
Verbal aspect is distinguished in English by using the simple of ] (continuous) forms. 'He washed the dishes' indicates that the action was finished; 'He was washing the dishes' indicates that the action was ongoing (progressive). Croatian, like all Slavic languages, has something similar.

To compare the meanings of the different aspects with verbal aspect in English, one should know three basic aspects: completed (may be called preterit, aorist, or perfect according to the language in question), progressive (on-going but not completed yet, durative), and iterative (habitual or repeated). English uses one aspect for completed and iterative and another for progressive. Croatian uses one for completed and another for iterative and progressive.

Verbal aspect is the most challenging part of Croatian grammar. It exists in all other Slavic languages, but learners of Croatian who do know any other Slavic languages may never learn to use aspect correctly, though they will be understood with only rare problems. All verbs in Croatian are either perfective (''svršeni'') or imperfective (''nesvršeni)''. Almost all verbs are part of a perfective/imperfective pair of verbs. When learning a verb, one must learn its verbal aspect, and the other verb for the opposite verbal aspect, e.g., ''prati'' (to wash, imperfective) goes with ''oprati'' (to wash, perfective).

Regarding aspect, verbs come in two types. In one type, the root verb is imperfective, such as ''prati''. In this case the perfective is formed by adding the ''prefix'' 'o', as in ''oprati''. In the other type, the root verb is perfective, such as ''pokušati''. In this case the imperfective is formed by adding a suffix: ''pokušavati'''.

A pattern which often arises can be illustrated with ''pisati'', to write. ''Pisati'' is imperfective, so we need to add a prefix, in this case 'na-', to make it perfective: ''napisati''. But if we add other prefixes to modify the meaning, the basic verb becomes perfective: ''zapisati'' (to write down) or ''prepisati''' (to copy by hand). Since these basic verbs are perfective, we need to add a suffix to make them imperfective: ''zapisivati'' and ''prepisivati''.

Many perfective verbs change their vowels instead of adding a suffix to become imperfective: ''roditi'' - ''rađati'. Typically, the 'iti' ending becomes 'ati', and the consonant becomes palatized.

===Conjugation of verbs===
{{main|Grammatical conjugation}}
There are three conjugations of verbs:
*# 'a': almost all verbs that have this conjugation end in "-ati".
*# 'e': verbs ending in "-nuti" and all irregular verbs (as in the example below).
*# 'i': almost all verbs ending in "jeti" or "iti" use this conjugation
*# 'uje': verbs ending in "-ovati", "-ivati".

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Person
! colspan="2" | čitati
! colspan="2" | prati (irregular)
! colspan="2" | vidjeti (-jeti or -iti)
|-
! singluar
! plural
! singluar
! plural
! singluar
! plural
|-
| First person
| čitam
| čitamo
| perem
| peremo
| vidim
| vidimo
|-
| Second person
| čitaš
| čitate
| pereš
| perete
| vidiš
| vidite
|-
| Third person
| čita
| čitaju
| pere
| peru
| vidi
| vide
|}

==Syntax==
Croatian has a rich case structure that is reflected in the declension of nouns and adjectives. This makes syntax of little use and allows for very great freedom of word order. In English, for example, the difference between ']' and 'Dog bites man' is shown by syntax. In Croatian ''čovjek grize psa'' and ''čovjek a grize pas'' have the same word order, but the meanings are shown by the noun endings. Any word of the three words is grammatically correct, and the meaning clear because of the declensions.

They are certain words that have no accent (]) that must come in a fixed order. They are, in order, question words (only ''li''), verbs (clitic forms of 'to be', sam, si, je, smo, ste, and su, and of 'will' (''ću, ćes, će, ćemo'', and ''ćete''), dative pronouns (''mi, ti, mu, nas, vas, im,a'' and ''si''), the reflexive accusative pronoun (only ''se''), and the accusative pronoun (''me, te, ga, je, ju, nas, vas'', and ''ih''). The clitics must be at the second position of the sentence. The first element may be a single word or a premodifier-noun combination, e.g. ''Taj '''se''' čovjek vara'', 'That person deceives himself', or ''Taj ćovijek '''se''' vara''.

==See also==
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]

==External links==
{{InterWiki|code=hr}}
{{wikibooks|Croatian}}<!--
{{wikibookslang|code=hr}}
{{wikisourcelang|hr}}
{{wikiquotelang|code=hr}}-->
{{Wiktionarylang|code=hr}}
* http://learn-croatian.com Phrases and grammar
* http://www.hr/hrvatska/language/index.en.htm Beginner's Croatian
* http://www.visit-croatia.co.uk/croatianfortravellers Croatian for Travellers with audio files.

]
]

Latest revision as of 09:17, 13 July 2010

Redirect to: