EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 38 Needs, Wishes and Intenons 226 / 600
This way of expressing needs and intentions is seen more often in formal
communication, and sometimes in speech when you want to say something
expressive.
However, it’s not really polite to say simply želim + A to someone you’re not familiar
with. Consequently, there’s a way to ‘soften’ such expressions, and you’ll see it in
the following chapter.
________
® In Serbia, infinitives are less often used: in speech, the form da + present prevails
almost completely. For instance, the first sentence in Serbia would rather be
basically always Želim da jedem jabuku. You will sometimes hear such
constructions in Croatia and Bosnia as well.
Furthermore, Standard Serbian insists that the verb trebati cannot be used
personally at all with another verb, so instead of e.g. Trebam jesti jabuke, the only
standard option is:
Treba° da jedem jabuke A .
jesti
The past-m form htjeo is frequent in Bosnia.
Instead of kava, a slightly different word kafa is common in most parts of Bosnia
and Serbia. In Bosnia, the form kahva is used as well, especially in parts where
Bosniaks (Bosnian Muslims) live.
In Serbia, the verb smjeti (smije, smio, smjela) be allowed to is used in the “Ekavian”
form, which is just smeti; the verb is fully regular, but like “Ekavian” razumeti
understand, its pres-3 is smeju. Besides, it has an additional meaning dare.
In Serbia, it’s common to use the verb probati in the present tense as well, unlike in
Bosnia or Croatia.