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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 138 / 600

24 Past Tense

The past tense is completely different than the present tense in Croatian. First, it’s

always formed from two words, the past form of the verb and present of the verb

biti (je² +) be. The past form varies according to the gender of the subject and

whether it’s singular or plural.

The endings of the past form (also known as past participle, or l-participle) are not

too complicated:

gender past past pl.

fem. -la -le

neut. -lo -la

masc. -o ® -li

For example, here are the past forms the verb čitati read:

gender past past pl.

fem. čitala čitale

neut. čitalo čitala

masc. čitao ® čitali

(I have dropped the underline on the first vowel, since it’s only important for the

present tense anyway.)

Again, there’s no difference between the two masculine genders. Even better, the

past forms are simply created by adding their endings to a verb after the -ti is

removed. It works for many verbs with ‘irregular’ presents as well – their past is

perfectly regular. It holds even for the verb biti (je² +) be:

verb past-f past-m

biti (je² +) be bila bio

pisati (piše) write pisala pisao

piti (pije) drink pila pio

plesati (pleše) dance plesala plesao

slati (šalje) send slala slao

trčati (trči) run trčala trčao

Also, for almost all verbs, past forms are stressed on the same syllable as the

infinitive, e.g. izgledati → izgleda-la.

Past forms are similar to adjectives, and for few verbs, they can be used as true

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