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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 26 / 600Such words are often placed before the verb, and svaki dan is often found at theend of the sentence as well. Word order is quite free in Croatian and you can placemany words as you like.Ana rijetko gleda televiziju. Ana watches TV rarely.Ponekad pijem kavu. I drink coffee sometimes.Ivan pije kavu svaki dan. Ivan drinks coffee every day.There’s another useful word: skoro almost (it has other meanings as well). Usedwith nikad(a), it expresses almost never. However, you still have to use negation:Skoro nikad ne pijem kavu. I almost never drink coffee.There are more useful words. For example when you say that someone is doingsomething, you could be perfectly sure, or just guess. That’s where these wordscome into play:možda maybeočito obviouslysigurno for surevjerojatno probably ®Such words are again usually put before the verb. For example:Goran možda spava. Goran is maybe sleeping.Ivan sigurno pije kavu. Ivan is drinking coffee for sure.There are couple of words to indicate that something repeats or happens for thefirst time:opet / ponovo / ponovno againprvi put for the first timeThere’s really no difference among the three words meaning again. The word opetis the most frequent one in everyday life:Ana opet spava. Ana is sleeping again.Goran prvi put čita knjigu. Goran is reading a book for the first time.You will sometimes hear and read prvi puta, e.g. in newspapers. (Some people thinkthat form is not acceptable as standard, but it can be seen in publications issued bythe Croatian government!) It’s basically the same variation as nikad vs. nikada.If you are asked what you’re doing, and you aren’t doing anything in particular, youcan answer with:Što radiš? What are you doing?— Ništa. Nothing.If you want to use ništa nothing with a verb, the verb must be negated too:Ivan često ne radi ništa. Ivan frequently does nothing. (lit. ‘isn’t doing nothing’)This is again quite unlike English. In English, there’s at most one negation in apitipitipiti
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 27 / 600sentence; in Croatian, it’s always either all negative – including the verb – ornothing. The following sentence negates the verb and has two additional negativewords:Ivan nikad ne radi ništa. Ivan never does anything. (lit. ‘doesn’t never do nothing’)Such ‘multiple negations’ in Croatian are mandatory.________® Instead of šalica, šolja is used in Bosnia and Serbia. Instead of uopće, uopšte isused in Serbia and parts of Bosnia. Instead of vjerojatno, vjerovatno is common inBosnia and Serbia, and colloquially in parts of Croatia.• Something Possibly InterestingThe word ne¨ is negative. This is not a coincidence: the English word ultimatelycomes from Latin, and the prefix ne- in Latin meant negation; Croatian and Latin are(distant) cousins. This is another detail that can help you remember the Croatianword.• ExerciseFill in the words:______(a) ______________(b), gledam __________________(c). I’m not sleeping,I’m watching TV.______________(d) trebam ______________(e). I need coffee again.______________(f) više ______________(g). I don’t have a glass anymore.Ivan ______________(h) ne __________(i) televiziju. Ivan is not watching TV forsure.______________(j) pijem ________(k). I drink coffee sometimes.Check answers here.
- 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 and 24: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 03 Objects
- Page 25: 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
- Page 75 and 76: Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 12 Simple
Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 04 No, Oen, Probably and Again 27 / 600
sentence; in Croatian, it’s always either all negative – including the verb – or
nothing. The following sentence negates the verb and has two additional negative
words:
Ivan nikad ne radi ništa. Ivan never does anything. (lit. ‘doesn’t never do nothing’)
Such ‘multiple negations’ in Croatian are mandatory.
________
® Instead of šalica, šolja is used in Bosnia and Serbia. Instead of uopće, uopšte is
used in Serbia and parts of Bosnia. Instead of vjerojatno, vjerovatno is common in
Bosnia and Serbia, and colloquially in parts of Croatia.
• Something Possibly Interesting
The word ne¨ is negative. This is not a coincidence: the English word ultimately
comes from Latin, and the prefix ne- in Latin meant negation; Croatian and Latin are
(distant) cousins. This is another detail that can help you remember the Croatian
word.
• Exercise
Fill in the words:
______(a) ______________(b), gledam __________________(c). I’m not sleeping,
I’m watching TV.
______________(d) trebam ______________(e). I need coffee again.
______________(f) više ______________(g). I don’t have a glass anymore.
Ivan ______________(h) ne __________(i) televiziju. Ivan is not watching TV for
sure.
______________(j) pijem ________(k). I drink coffee sometimes.
Check answers here.
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