EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 35 Tools and Means, With and Without 202 / 600
35 Tools and Means, With and Without
It’s time to introduce one more case. It’s called instrumental (just I for short), and
among other things, it has to do with instruments and tools. We’ll learn it in singular
first. The endings are:
noun type (N)
I
nouns in -a (≈ fem.) -a → -om
neuter nouns (≈ in -o, -e) add -m
masc. nouns not in -a add -om (some -em)
fem. not in -a (e.g. noć) add -i
Some masculine nouns get ending -em instead of -om if they end in a Croatianspecific
letter – the same principle as for DL of adjectives. Two masc. nouns that get
plural on -evi despite not ending in a Croatian-specific consonant, get -em in
instrumental as well:
car emperor → carem put way → putem
This is often seen with other nouns in -r as well, but it’s optional for them. Most
nouns ending in -c get -evi as well:
otac (oc-) father → ocem stric uncle → stricem
There are many uses of the instrumental case – some quite surprising, involving time
and so on – but the use it got named after is for tools and means. For instance:
Pišem olovkom I . I’m writing with a pen.
Putujem vlakom I . I’m traveling by train. ®
These are often used nouns for means of transportation:
auto (aut-) m car
autobusʷ¹ bus
avion airplane
bicikl bicycle
brod ship
taksi (taksij-) m taxi
tramvaj tram
vlak train ®
pisati
putovati
For example:
Na posao A idem biciklom I . I go to work by bicycle.
ići
The instrumental case of noga foot is not used to express that you walk, it’s used
only as a ‘tool’, e.g. if you kick something with your foot. There are specific adverbs
in Croatian to express ‘by foot’, as a way of transport:
pješke / pješice by foot
There’s another way to express tools, mostly when you want to emphasize that you
used a tool, especially an unusual tool for the task: