EasyCroatian_r47.an
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 142 / 600ići (ide, išao, išla) gopeći (peče, pekao, pekla) bakevući (vuče, vukao, vukla) pullSome verbs with infinitives in -sti have a bit specific past-f form as well:gristi (grize, grizao, grizla) biterasti (raste, rastao, rasla) growVerbs like vidjeti see – actually, all verbs ending in -jeti, including razumjetiunderstand – always have the following forms in the past: ®inf past-m past-fsee vidjeti vidio vidjelaunderstand razumjeti razumio razumjelaFor instance:Vidio sam Anu. A I saw Ana. (I = male)Vidjela sam Anu A . I saw Ana. (I = female)Razumio sam ga A . I understood him. (I = male)3m/nNismo ih A razumjeli. We didn’t understand them.3plThis is yet another instance where past forms are more regular then the presenttense. I will normally list the past forms for such verbs too, but sometimes I omitthem and write just ... to make the text more compact.Once in a while, you’ll see and hear another past tense, the aorist tense ®. It’s mostcommon used in the first person, and its forms are just one word; for instance, the1st person aorist form is usually obtained by replacing the infinitive -ti with -h, e.g.vidjeh I saw. For a fuller description, see 99 Aorist Tense and Other MarginalFeatures.For a full discussion of various verb types, check A3 Verbs.Finally, there are many verbs in Croatian which mean some action was brought tocompletion. Such verbs are rarely used in the present tense, since present tense isunderstood as ongoing, but they are frequent in the past tense. For example, theverb pročitati means read completely. In the past tense, such verbs usuallycorrespond to simple English tenses, while normal verbs often correspond tocontinuous tenses:Čitao sam knjigu A . lit. ‘I was reading the book.’Pročitao sam knjigu A . lit. ‘I’ve read the book completely.’Such verbs – implying completion – are called perfective: they will be explained indepth in 37 Complete Reading: Perfective Verbs and later chapters. You willencounter some of them in examples in the following sections. For now, it’s enough
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 143 / 600to keep in mind they aren’t normally used in the present tense.________® The endings for past forms listed above are Standard Croatian (and Serbian,Bosnian, Montenegrin). In the colloquial use, many people pronounce past-m formsthat end in -ao (e.g. čekao, išao, and so on) with only -o (that is, čeko, išo, etc.). Youwill hear such forms, and see them spelled sometimes with an apostrophe (i.e.ček’o, iš’o).In many regions, especially in smaller towns and villages, there are other forms ofpast-m, e.g. ending in just -l; for more information, check A8 Dialects.Instead of jučer, a slightly shortened juče is used in Serbia and Bosnia. Instead ofkino, the word for cinema used in Serbia and Bosnia is bioskop.“Ekavian” forms, which dominate in Serbia, are much simpler for verbs in -jeti: frome.g. videti, past forms are video, videla, from razumeti – razumeo, razumela, etc.In parts of Croatia and Bosnia, you often hear (and sometimes read) generalized“Ikavian” forms, where such verbs have all past endings in -i-, e.g. vidio, vidila, vidili,etc.The aorist tense is much more common in Bosnia and Serbia.• ExamplesImala je lijepu rupicu na bradi She had a nice little hole on her chin is a popular songfrom 1980’s performed by late Oliver Dragojević, a very popular Croatian popsinger. Most songs he performed were in various “Ikavian” dialects, but this basicallystandard.Observe how the name of the song implies she from using the past-f form imala.The song is basically all in the past tense. The first verse contains osobit particulartransformed into an adverb osobito particularly. The second verse contains druge,which is the feminine plural form of drugi other, another, here used as a pronoun(like other ones) but feminine, which cannot be exactly translated to English: it canbe understood as other women, other girls, basically other female ones (recall 18This and That). Plural forms will be explained in the next chapter.Nije bila osobito lijepa NShe wasn’t particularly beautifulali nije bila kao druge Nbut she wasn’t like other womenpa je ljubav N , kao uvijek slijepa N so love, blind as alwaysfzbog nje G razne A prelazila pruge A crossed various tracks because of herThe third verse literally has ‘like always blind’. The fourth verse has razne prugevarious tracks split by the verb! This is not common in speech, but notungrammatical; it’s here for rhythmic reasons. You know the adjective refers to thenoun since they match in gender (feminine), number (plural) and case (A). The word
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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 24 Past Tense 143 / 600
to keep in mind they aren’t normally used in the present tense.
________
® The endings for past forms listed above are Standard Croatian (and Serbian,
Bosnian, Montenegrin). In the colloquial use, many people pronounce past-m forms
that end in -ao (e.g. čekao, išao, and so on) with only -o (that is, čeko, išo, etc.). You
will hear such forms, and see them spelled sometimes with an apostrophe (i.e.
ček’o, iš’o).
In many regions, especially in smaller towns and villages, there are other forms of
past-m, e.g. ending in just -l; for more information, check A8 Dialects.
Instead of jučer, a slightly shortened juče is used in Serbia and Bosnia. Instead of
kino, the word for cinema used in Serbia and Bosnia is bioskop.
“Ekavian” forms, which dominate in Serbia, are much simpler for verbs in -jeti: from
e.g. videti, past forms are video, videla, from razumeti – razumeo, razumela, etc.
In parts of Croatia and Bosnia, you often hear (and sometimes read) generalized
“Ikavian” forms, where such verbs have all past endings in -i-, e.g. vidio, vidila, vidili,
etc.
The aorist tense is much more common in Bosnia and Serbia.
• Examples
Imala je lijepu rupicu na bradi She had a nice little hole on her chin is a popular song
from 1980’s performed by late Oliver Dragojević, a very popular Croatian pop
singer. Most songs he performed were in various “Ikavian” dialects, but this basically
standard.
Observe how the name of the song implies she from using the past-f form imala.
The song is basically all in the past tense. The first verse contains osobit particular
transformed into an adverb osobito particularly. The second verse contains druge,
which is the feminine plural form of drugi other, another, here used as a pronoun
(like other ones) but feminine, which cannot be exactly translated to English: it can
be understood as other women, other girls, basically other female ones (recall 18
This and That). Plural forms will be explained in the next chapter.
Nije bila osobito lijepa N
She wasn’t particularly beautiful
ali nije bila kao druge N
but she wasn’t like other women
pa je ljubav N , kao uvijek slijepa N so love, blind as always
f
zbog nje G razne A prelazila pruge A crossed various tracks because of her
The third verse literally has ‘like always blind’. The fourth verse has razne pruge
various tracks split by the verb! This is not common in speech, but not
ungrammatical; it’s here for rhythmic reasons. You know the adjective refers to the
noun since they match in gender (feminine), number (plural) and case (A). The word
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