EasyCroatian_r47.an
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 24 / 60004 No, Often, Probably and AgainWe now know how to say Ana is watching TV, but how to say Ana isn't watching TV?It is quite simple: just put a word ne¨ right before the verb. This is the default andmain way to make negation in Croatian (in English, you can also put no right in frontof a noun, e.g. I need no coffee, but it does not work in Croatian):Ana ne gleda televiziju. Ana isn’t watching TV.Ne trebam kavu. I don’t need coffee.According to the Standard pronunciation, the word ne¨ is pronounced together withthe verb that follows it, and for many verbs – but not for all – the ne¨ gets stressedinstead of the verb. That almost never happens in the ‘western’ pronunciation,where the stress almost never moves in such circumstances. We could thereforewrite the above combination as ne-gleda.If you want to follow the Standard stress scheme, how to find out if the stressmoves to ne¨ or not? Just look if the verb has (in my markings!) any underline. Thisexplains why I have underlined the first syllables of some verbs:Standard stress when ne¨ is before a verbne + gleda the stress moves to nene + čita no shift: the stress stays on čine + razgovara no shift: the stress stays on goIn the ‘western’ scheme, which is much simpler, the stress doesn’t even move fromgleda. It that scheme, it moves mostly from the very short verbs, like znati know,and there’s only few of them. In the city of Rijeka and the region around it, thestress usually doesn’t move, even from such short verbs.The two dots (¨) after the ne¨ are just a reminder that this word must be placedalways right before the verb, and that it gets pronounced together with the verb;they are just my markings, of course they are not normally written, please don’twrite them when you write in Croatian.The verb imati have behaves a bit specially: its present tense forms get always fusedwith ne¨ into nema, nemam, etc.:Nemam čašu. I don’t have a glass.Croatian has two words that correspond to English glass (to drink from, not what isused for windows) and cup, and they divide the world a bit differently:čaša glass, (paper) cup (no handle)šalica cup, mug (has a handle) ®Basically, čaša is made of glass or some thin material (e.g. plastic, paper) and šalica
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 25 / 600is heavy and has a handle.Back to negative sentences: they can mean that something is not happening rightnow or it never happens. If you want to emphasize that something never happens,you should add the following adverb in the sentence – the most common place isbefore the ne¨ – but without removing the negation:nikad(a) never (use with negation!)This is different than in English, where you have to remove negation if you usenever. The word can appear as either nikad or nikada, there’s no difference inmeaning and the shorter form is more common in everyday communication (thereare many words in Croatian with this feature). For example:Ana nikad ne gleda televiziju. Ana never watches TV.Nikad ne pijem kavu. I never drink coffee.pitiThere are more words like nikad(a) in Croatian: whenever any of them is used, theverb must be negated. Most of them start with ni-.There’s another special adverb that emphasizes the negation:uopće + negation not... at all ®As in other Croatian words that have vowels without a consonant between, vowelsare pronounced separately. Therefore, the word has three syllables: u-op-će.(Besides, the word is stressed on the first syllable in the Standard scheme, and onthe second syllable in the ‘western’ scheme.) For example:Goran uopće ne spava. Goran isn’t sleeping at all.Futhermore, we can use the following combinations of adverbs and ne¨ to expressthat something is over or still didn’t begin:još + negation not... yetviše + negation not... anymoreFor example:Goran još ne spava. Goran isn’t sleeping yet.Više ne pijem kavu. I don’t drink coffee anymore.piti(It’s not obligatory to put the words nikad(a), uopće, još and više right before ne¨,that’s just the most frequent position.)It’s also useful to tell how often something happens. There are following usefulwords:često oftenobično usuallyponekad sometimesrijetko not very oftenstalno all the timesvaki dan every dayuvijek always
- Page 1 and 2: Easy Croatian© Daniel N. 2009-2019
- Page 3 and 4: ContentsIntroduction 601 Alphabet a
- Page 5 and 6: 84 Western Urban Speech 46785 Small
- Page 7 and 8: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / Introducon
- Page 9 and 10: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 01 Alphabe
- Page 11 and 12: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 01 Alphabe
- Page 13 and 14: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 01 Alphabe
- Page 15 and 16: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 02 Simples
- Page 17 and 18: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 02 Simples
- Page 19 and 20: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 03 Objects
- Page 21 and 22: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 03 Objects
- Page 23: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 03 Objects
- Page 27 and 28: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen
- Page 29 and 30: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 05 Accusav
- Page 31 and 32: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 05 Accusav
- Page 33 and 34: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 05 Accusav
- Page 35 and 36: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 06 Desnaon
- Page 37 and 38: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 06 Desnaon
- Page 39 and 40: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 06 Desnaon
- Page 41 and 42: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 07 Verbs w
- Page 43 and 44: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 07 Verbs w
- Page 45 and 46: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 07 Verbs w
- Page 47 and 48: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 07 Verbs w
- Page 49 and 50: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 08 Weather
- Page 51 and 52: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 08 Weather
- Page 53 and 54: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 09 Numbers
- Page 55 and 56: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 09 Numbers
- Page 57 and 58: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 10 Gender
- Page 59 and 60: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 10 Gender
- Page 61 and 62: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 10 Gender
- Page 63 and 64: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 10 Gender
- Page 65 and 66: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 11 Colors,
- Page 67 and 68: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 11 Colors,
- Page 69 and 70: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 11 Colors,
- Page 71 and 72: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 12 Simple
- Page 73 and 74: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 12 Simple
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 25 / 600
is heavy and has a handle.
Back to negative sentences: they can mean that something is not happening right
now or it never happens. If you want to emphasize that something never happens,
you should add the following adverb in the sentence – the most common place is
before the ne¨ – but without removing the negation:
nikad(a) never (use with negation!)
This is different than in English, where you have to remove negation if you use
never. The word can appear as either nikad or nikada, there’s no difference in
meaning and the shorter form is more common in everyday communication (there
are many words in Croatian with this feature). For example:
Ana nikad ne gleda televiziju. Ana never watches TV.
Nikad ne pijem kavu. I never drink coffee.
piti
There are more words like nikad(a) in Croatian: whenever any of them is used, the
verb must be negated. Most of them start with ni-.
There’s another special adverb that emphasizes the negation:
uopće + negation not... at all ®
As in other Croatian words that have vowels without a consonant between, vowels
are pronounced separately. Therefore, the word has three syllables: u-op-će.
(Besides, the word is stressed on the first syllable in the Standard scheme, and on
the second syllable in the ‘western’ scheme.) For example:
Goran uopće ne spava. Goran isn’t sleeping at all.
Futhermore, we can use the following combinations of adverbs and ne¨ to express
that something is over or still didn’t begin:
još + negation not... yet
više + negation not... anymore
For example:
Goran još ne spava. Goran isn’t sleeping yet.
Više ne pijem kavu. I don’t drink coffee anymore.
piti
(It’s not obligatory to put the words nikad(a), uopće, još and više right before ne¨,
that’s just the most frequent position.)
It’s also useful to tell how often something happens. There are following useful
words:
često often
obično usually
ponekad sometimes
rijetko not very often
stalno all the time
svaki dan every day
uvijek always
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