1) Personal Pronouns
Pronouns are nouns which replace or stand in place of definite things, and which can refer to different
things depending on who is saying them and what you are referring to – e.g. that, this, me, you. ‘Me’
has a different meaning when I say it, as when you say it. Similarly, ‘that’ has a different meaning
when I am pointing at a desk, as when I am pointing at a table. Pronouns are therefore general nouns,
not specific ones.
Personal pronouns are the pronouns that describe persons – I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
I = Ja
You (singular, informal) = Ti
He = On
She = Ona
It = Ono
We = Mi
You (plural, i.e. referring to a group of people, or polite when speaking to one person) = Vi
They (masculine i.e. a group of men or male objects) = Oni
They (feminine i.e. a group of women or female objects) = One
They (neuter i.e. a group of things) = Ona
I am
we are
You can use the verb without the personal pronoun – however the short form of the verb (sam, si, etc)
can never come at the start of a sentence. E.g. Gladna = hungry (female). So, you can say ‘ja sam
gladna’, or ‘gladna sam’, but never ‘sam gladna’. ‘Sam’, therefore, means ‘I am’ – the personal
pronoun is just used for extra empahasis.
If you want to start the sentence with the verb ‘to be’ (when asking questions) or if you need to use it
alone, you use the long form.
2) Verbs
a) To be – Biti (verbs in the infinitive (i.e. ‘to …’) usually end in ‘ti’)
i) short form
Ja sam –
Ti si – You (singular/informal) are
On/ona/ono je – he/she/it is
Mi smo –
Vi ste – you (plural/formal singular) are
Oni/one/ona su – they (male/female/neuter) are.
ii) long form
jesmo
jeste
jesu
jesam
jesi
jest
e.g.
Nismo – We’re not
Niste – You (plural) are not
Nisu – they’re not
‘Jesi li gladna?’ = Are you hungry?
‘Jesam!’ = I am (has affirmative qualities, it’s the equivalent to saying, ‘yes, I am’)
iii) negative
To make a verb into a negative, you simply put ‘ne’ in front of it. So if ‘èitam’ means I’m reading, ‘ne
èitam’ means I’m not reading.
Biti and htjeti are the exceptions. The negative form is spelt as one word. For biti, this goes as follows:
Nisam – I’m not
Nisi – you’re not
Nije – he/she/it is not
Biti is an irregular verb, but is used to make all past tense constructions so is used more than any other
verb except for ‘htjeti’ – ‘to want to/will’ which is used to make all future tense constructions. More
about this later… b) Regular verbs
‘ a’ category i)
To have – imati
Ja imam
Ti imaš
On/ona/ono ima
Mi imamo
Vi imate
Oni/one/ona imaju
‘Ima’ (he/she/it has) also means ‘there is/are’. Any noun following it takes the genitive case (see section
3, nouns)
‘ e’ category (example:- to go – ièi) ii)
Ja idem
Ti ideš
On/a/o ide
Mi idemo
Vi idete
Oni/e/a idu
Infinitives ending in ‘èi’ are the other common verb form. There is not always an obvious link between
the infinitive (e.g. ièi) and the present tense (e.g. idem). However if you know the ja form of the present
tense you will be able to make all the other forms as almost all verbs follow one of these patterns.
Important exceptions are biti – to be, moæi – to be able to, and htjeti – to want /will.
‘ i’ category (example:- to work – raditi) iii)
Mi radimo
Vi radite
Oni/e/a rade
Ja radim
Ti radiš
On/a/o radi
In English, the verb doesn’t change except for the 3rd person singular (he/she it eats), so you always
need to use the personal pronoun (I, you, he/she/it etc) to clarify who you are talking about. In Bosnian,
the verb changes each time, so you don’t need to use the ja, ti, on etc forms (personal pronouns) to
distinguish between them – only for emphasis. So, radim means ‘I’m working’; if someone came into a
room where two of you are supposed to be working, but only you are actually doing so, and asked what
you were doing, you could say ‘ja radim’ to emphasise that only you are working.
3) Questions
a) Question words
Gdje – where (pronounced g’dyey)
Kako – how
Kad – when
Koliko – How much
Zašto – Why (za = for, što or šta = what, i.e. for what?)
Ko – who
Koji – which
Šta – what
How are you?
e.g.s
Gdje si = Where are you?
Koliko je … = How much is…?
Kako ste = Statement
Govorim hrvatski.
Razumijem engleski
Gladna ste
I speak Croatian
I understand English
You’re hungry
Do you speak Croatian?
Do you understand English?
Are you hungy? (n.b. the verb changes to it’s long form as ‘ste’
can’t go at the beginning of a sentence)
If you include the personal pronoun in the question, then the word order is as follows:
So, a question is made by putting li after the verb and before the personal pronoun. A question can also
be made by putting da li in front of the verb:
Question
Govorite li hrvatski?
Razumijete li engleski?
Jeste li gladna?
Govorite li vi hrvatski?
Razumijete li vi engleski?
Jeste li vi gladna?
Da li govorite hrvatski?
Da li razumijete engleski?
Da li ste gladna?
Do you speak Croatian?
Do you understand English?
Are you hungry? (N.B. the verb is in it’s short form again as it isn’t
at the start of a sentence
When you use question words (e.g. who, where etc) you don’t need to use li or da li.
b) making a question without using question words
Compare the following constructions to see the difference between a statement and a question:
vlak
vlake
vlak
vlaka
vlaku
vlakom
Žena
Ženo
Ženu
Žene
3) Nouns
vi)
a) Nouns decline into 7 cases – Nominative, vocative, accusative, genitive, dative and instrumental.
i) Nominative = subject, the person or thing which is acting e.g. the cat ate the dog
ii) Vocative = addressing or calling someone or something e.g. John!
iii) Accusative = object, the person or thing which is being acted on e.g. the cat ate the dog
i
v
v
)
) Genitive = ‘of’ someone or something e.g. the cat ate fred’s dog
Dative = ‘to’ or ‘for’ – e.g. she wrote a letter to/for her mother, this present is for you.
Instrumental = ‘by’ something – this almost always refers to methods of transport, e.g. he
travelled by train
Nouns are also gendered, like french nouns – you can tell what gender a noun is by it’s ending:
masculine nouns end in a consonant, and case endings are added onto it; feminine nouns end in an ‘a’
which changes to make the different case endings, and neuter nouns end in an ‘o’, which changes to
make the ending.
b) Masculine nouns, singular – Vlak – train
Nominative –
Vocative -
Accusative –
Genitive –
Dative -
Instrumental -
c) Feminine nouns, singular – Žena – woman
Nom -
Voc -
Acc -
Gen -
Ženi
Ženom
Dat -
Ins -
d) Neuter nouns, singular – Selo – village
Selo
Selo
Selo
Sela
Selu
Selom
Nom -
Voc -
Acc -
Gen -
Dat -
Ins -
Vocab list
Selo (n) – village
Žena (f) – woman
Vlak (m) – train
Biti, ja sam/jesam – to be, I am
Gladna – hungry
Èitati, èitam – to read, I read
Htjeti, hocu – To want/will, I want/will
Imati, imam – To have, I have
Ima – he/she/it has, there is
Iæi, idem – to go, I go
Moæi, mogu (irregular) – To be able to/can, I am able to/can
Raditi, radim – to work, I work
Gdje – where (pronounced g’dyey)
Kako – how
Kad – when
Koliko – How much
Zašto – Why (za = for, što or šta = what, i.e. for what?)
Ko – who
Koji – which
Šta – what
Govoriti, govorim – to speak, I speak
Hrvatski – Croatian
Razumijeti, razumijem – To understand, I understand
Engleski – english
Li/da li – has no translatable meaning in english, makes statements into a question akes
