EasyCroatian_r47.an
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 140 / 600sam², where the auxiliary verb goes to the second position, and the past formcan, in principle, be anywhere:Goran N je jednog hladnog zimskog dana G čuo... On a cold winter day, Goranheard...(Expressions like jednog hladnog zimskog dana will be explained later.) Whenyou see an auxiliary verb, the matching past form (or an adjective) can besometimes far away!You have to be careful with the impersonal use of verbs. That’s whenever Englishuses “dummy” it, but also in impressions. From now on, I will mark all impersonalverbs in the present tense with a small circle (°):Hladno je°. It’s cold.Hladno mi DL je°. I’m cold. (lit. ‘It’s cold to me.’)1Drago nam DL je°. We’re glad. (lit. ‘It’s dear to us.’)1plDosta mu DL je°. He had enough.3m/nAll such sentences in the past tense always use neuter singular past forms:Bilo je hladno. It was cold.Bilo mi DL je hladno. I was cold. (lit. ‘It was cold to me.’)1Bilo nam DL je drago. We were glad. (lit. ‘It was dear to us.’)1plBilo mu DL je dosta. He has had enough.3m/nNow you see why I have marked impersonal verbs in present tense with a °: itreminds you that you have to use the neuter singular in the past tense – a form thatends in -o. Of course, this is just a reminder I’ve invented for this work, nobody elseuses it. Please don’t use it when you write Croatian words and sentences!I repeat: impersonal sentences have no subjects. There have no nouns orpronouns in the nominative case. The last sentence translates literally as ‘it wasenough to him’. They are always in neuter singular in the past tense. As there’s nosubject, the past form defaults to its neutral, kind of genderless form.The following sentences at the first glance look impersonal too, but they aren’t:Ponoć N je. It’s midnight. (lit. ‘Midnight is.’)fJutro N je. It’s morning. (lit. ‘Morning is.’)While English sentences are impersonal, Croatian ones aren’t: in these sentences,subjects are ponoć f midnight and jutro morning, so in the past tense, past formswill get gender of subjects:Bila je ponoć N . It was midnight. (lit. ‘Midnight was.’)fBilo je jutro N . It was morning. (lit. ‘Morning was.’)Another likely unexpected behavior is for sentences of the form ovo je..., to je... +noun. In such sentences, the subject isn’t to, but the noun, so the past tense adjusts
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 141 / 600to its gender:To N je mačka N . It’s a cat.→ To N je bila mačka N . It was a cat.To N je problem N . That’s a problem.→ To N je bio problem N . That was a problem.To negate sentences in the past tense, just use the negative forms of present tenseof biti (that is, nisam, nisi, nije, etc.):Ana N nije bila gladna N . Ana wasn’t hungry.Nisam spavao. I wasn’t sleeping. (I = male)Nije nam DL bilo dosadno. We weren’t bored.As usual, forms nisam and so on are not restricted to the second position and arecommonly found right before the past form.A special case is the negative existential construction. While it uses impersonalnema in the present tense, in the past tense, impersonal nije bilo is used:Nema° piva G . There’s no beer.→ Nije bilo piva G . There was no beer.Nema° ih G . They aren’t here/there.→ Nije ih G bilo. They weren’t here/there.There are useful adverbs of time often used with verbs in the past tense:davno a long time agojučer yesterday ®malo prije moments agonedavno recentlynekad(a) some time agoranije earlierThe adverb nedavno means that some action or state happened at a recent period;the adverb odnedavno means start something started at a recent moment (andmight still be ongoing).For example:Ivan N je jučer bio u kinu DL . Ivan was at the cinema yesterday. ®Sadly, some verbs are irregular even in the past tense; this includes all verbs havinginfinitives ending in -ći and most with inf. in -sti. Therefore, when such verbs arelisted, they will have past-m forms listed as well after their pres-3:jesti (jede, jeo) eatplesti (plete, pleo) knit(I will list the past-m and not e.g. past-f simply due to tradition of listing verb forms,and because you will find past-m’s listed in printed and online dictionaries.) Thepast-f is listed if it cannot be regularly obtained from the past-m; luckily, all otherpast forms can always be deduced from the past-f. That’s how most verbs in -ći arelisted:1pl3pl3pl
- Page 89 and 90: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 15 Locaons
- Page 91 and 92: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 15 Locaons
- Page 93 and 94: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 15 Locaons
- Page 95 and 96: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 16 Giving
- Page 97 and 98: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 16 Giving
- Page 99 and 100: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 16 Giving
- Page 101 and 102: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 17 Adjecve
- Page 103 and 104: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 17 Adjecve
- Page 105 and 106: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 18 This an
- Page 107 and 108: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 18 This an
- Page 109 and 110: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 18 This an
- Page 111 and 112: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 19 Your, A
- Page 113 and 114: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 19 Your, A
- Page 115 and 116: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 19 Your, A
- Page 117 and 118: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 20 At My F
- Page 119 and 120: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 20 At My F
- Page 121 and 122: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 21 Origins
- Page 123 and 124: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 21 Origins
- Page 125 and 126: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 21 Origins
- Page 127 and 128: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 22 Here I
- Page 129 and 130: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 22 Here I
- Page 131 and 132: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 22 Here I
- Page 133 and 134: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 23 I’m C
- Page 135 and 136: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 23 I’m C
- Page 137 and 138: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 23 I’m C
- Page 139: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Te
- Page 143 and 144: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Te
- Page 145 and 146: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural
- Page 147 and 148: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural
- Page 149 and 150: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural
- Page 151 and 152: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 25 Plural
- Page 153 and 154: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 26 Yes or
- Page 155 and 156: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 26 Yes or
- Page 157 and 158: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 27 Body 15
- Page 159 and 160: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 27 Body 15
- Page 161 and 162: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 27 Body 16
- Page 163 and 164: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 28 Asking
- Page 165 and 166: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 28 Asking
- Page 167 and 168: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 28 Asking
- Page 169 and 170: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 29 Plural
- Page 171 and 172: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 29 Plural
- Page 173 and 174: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 29 Plural
- Page 175 and 176: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 30 Three B
- Page 177 and 178: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 30 Three B
- Page 179 and 180: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 31 First,
- Page 181 and 182: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 31 First,
- Page 183 and 184: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 31 First,
- Page 185 and 186: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 32 Love an
- Page 187 and 188: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 32 Love an
- Page 189 and 190: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 33 School
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 141 / 600
to its gender:
To N je mačka N . It’s a cat.
→ To N je bila mačka N . It was a cat.
To N je problem N . That’s a problem.
→ To N je bio problem N . That was a problem.
To negate sentences in the past tense, just use the negative forms of present tense
of biti (that is, nisam, nisi, nije, etc.):
Ana N nije bila gladna N . Ana wasn’t hungry.
Nisam spavao. I wasn’t sleeping. (I = male)
Nije nam DL bilo dosadno. We weren’t bored.
As usual, forms nisam and so on are not restricted to the second position and are
commonly found right before the past form.
A special case is the negative existential construction. While it uses impersonal
nema in the present tense, in the past tense, impersonal nije bilo is used:
Nema° piva G . There’s no beer.
→ Nije bilo piva G . There was no beer.
Nema° ih G . They aren’t here/there.
→ Nije ih G bilo. They weren’t here/there.
There are useful adverbs of time often used with verbs in the past tense:
davno a long time ago
jučer yesterday ®
malo prije moments ago
nedavno recently
nekad(a) some time ago
ranije earlier
The adverb nedavno means that some action or state happened at a recent period;
the adverb odnedavno means start something started at a recent moment (and
might still be ongoing).
For example:
Ivan N je jučer bio u kinu DL . Ivan was at the cinema yesterday. ®
Sadly, some verbs are irregular even in the past tense; this includes all verbs having
infinitives ending in -ći and most with inf. in -sti. Therefore, when such verbs are
listed, they will have past-m forms listed as well after their pres-3:
jesti (jede, jeo) eat
plesti (plete, pleo) knit
(I will list the past-m and not e.g. past-f simply due to tradition of listing verb forms,
and because you will find past-m’s listed in printed and online dictionaries.) The
past-f is listed if it cannot be regularly obtained from the past-m; luckily, all other
past forms can always be deduced from the past-f. That’s how most verbs in -ći are
listed:
1pl
3pl
3pl
Change language