EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 02 Simplest Sentences 15 / 600
If the pres-3 form is not straightforward, I’ll list it after the infinitive form of a verb,
in parentheses. A good Croatian dictionary should list it too:
ležati (leži) lie down, recline trčati (trči) run
To help you remember all verbs where pres-3 and other present tense forms are
not simply derived by removing -ti from the inf, such present tense forms will be
underlined with a blue line, and the inf forms will be printed on the right margin in
pale blue. For example:
Ana trči. Ana is running.
Marko leži. Marko is lying.
There are more verbs where you have to remember the present form, but it’s not a
simple change of a vowel; it again should be listed in a dictionary (you can call such
verbs ‘irregular’). For such verbs, the pres-3 form almost always ends in -e:
jesti (jede) eat
pisati (piše) write
piti (pije) drink
plakati (plače) cry
plesati (pleše) dance ®
skakati (skače) jump
trčati
ležati
(Recall that in words like pije, ije is pronounced as two syllables, since it comes at
the very end: pi-je.) Let’s put these forms to use:
Ana jede. Ana is eating.
jesti
Marko piše. Marko is writing.
pisati
Ivana pleše. Ivana is dancing.
plesati
Goran plače. Goran is crying.
plakati
Instead of names, you can use the following pronouns:
on he ona she
For example:
Ona jede. She’s eating.
jesti
On plače. He’s crying.
plakati
You can even leave out the pronoun if it’s obvious who you’re talking about:
Plače. He/she is crying.
plakati
That’s fine, but how do you say I’m eating or I’m cooking? Such sentences are in the
1st person. Croatian does not use personal pronouns (I, you...) often, the preferred
way is just to use a special verb form. (This is actually common in most languages:
English, German and French obligatory pronoun is an exception, from the standpoint
of the majority of languages in the world.)
It turns out that for almost all verbs, you just need to add an -m to the pres-3 form
to get the pres-1 form you now need:
Čitam. I’m reading.