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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 18 This and That 107 / 600

The normal order of adjectives in such phrases is demonstrative-possessivedescriptive,

but it can be changed in principle.

There’s another, very subtle way to express indefiniteness of the subject in

sentences without objects – put the subject after the verb:

Dolazi vlak N . A train is coming. ®

(This explains the common order of words in sentences like pada kiša lit. ‘a rain is

falling.’)

The adjective drugi is often translated as English another. While English e.g. another

apple is a bit ambiguous, Croatian drugi means not this one, and Croatian uses još +

jedan (jedn-) in meaning one more:

Želim drugu olovku A . I want another pencil. (a different pencil)

Želim još jednu A olovku A . I want another pencil. (one more)

We have used here the following noun and verb:

olovka pencil željeti (želi) want

The adjective jedan (jedn-) one can be negated, by appending ni-:

nijedan (nijedn-) + negation not even one

Like with other negative words starting with ni-, the verb must be negated too:

Nemam nijednu olovku A . I don’t have a single pencil. (lit. ‘I don’t have not even one

pencil.’)

Ne znam nijednu riječ A . I don’t know a single word. (lit. ‘I don’t know not even f

one word.’)

While jedan (jedn-) usually translates as one, Croatian has no “noun” like English

one. When you would use this one, another one in English, only the adjective-aspronoun

corresponding to this or another is used in Croatian – but don’t forget to

adjust its case and gender! For example:

Želim ovu jabuku A . I want this apple.

Želim ovu A . I want this one. (lit. ‘this’, fem. A)

Želim drugog učitelja A . I want another teacher.

Želim drugog A . I want another one. (lit. ‘other’, masc.anim. A)

Želim još jedno pivo A . I want one more beer.

Želim još jedno A . I want one more. (lit. ‘one’, neut. A)

This is one instance when it’s clear why adjectives show gender in Croatian – they

are more specific when used without nouns.

The words jedan (jedn-) and nijedan (nijedn-) are often used in short replies, buy

pay attention that they of course adjust to the gender of the thing they refer to

(here olovka pencil = feminine):

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