EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 18 This and That 108 / 600
Trebam olovku A . I need a pencil. ®
— Imam jednu A . I have one.
— Nemam nijednu A . I don’t have any. (lit. ‘I don’t have not even one.’)
The neuter form to (properly changed for case, of course) is also used to refer to
facts, statements, events and actions:
Kuham čaj A . I’m making tea. (lit. ‘cooking tea’) ®
— To N je dobro N ! That’s good!
Here, the word to refers to what is previously said. Only to can be used in such
references, ovo or ono cannot be used.
Croatian has specific demonstrative adverbs for manner (how) and quantity (how
much/many) that don’t have exact English counterparts:
manner
ovako in this way, like this
tako in that way, so
onako in that way, like that
quantity
ovoliko this much/many
toliko so much/many
onoliko that much/many
Out of them, ovako, tako and toliko are most often used. For example:
Ovaj auto N je tako brz N . This car is so fast.
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In fact, Croatian has a wide array of demonstrative adverbs, covering every category
of adverbs: destination, origin, reason, location, time, etc. Some of them are
frequently used, others less so.
However, certain meanings are expressed with a demonstrative + noun, and the
whole phrase gets a special meaning. The noun put (meaning way on its own) is
often used in such phrases:
ovaj put this time (around)
taj put that time
Croatian has also demonstrative adjectives corresponding to quality and size:
ovakav (ovakv-) such, like this
ovolik this big
Don’t forget these words are adjectives, that is, change in gender, case and number.
For example:
Imam ovakvu majicu A . I have such a shirt.
Other forms are derived in the same way as for other types of demonstratives, i.e.
by replacing ov- with t- or on-.
Don’t worry too much about the difference between ovakav (ovakv-) and takav
(takv-) – they are often used interchangeably by Croatians.