EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 48 Wholes, Parts, Heaps and Pairs 278 / 600
48 Wholes, Parts, Heaps and Pairs
How to express half an apple? Or third? If you think you can just use ordinal
numbers (e.g. treći third) to express parts (e.h. third of an apple), you cannot. They
must be ‘adjusted’ a bit.
In English, third is both an adjective (the third man) and a noun (two thirds). The
Croatian form treći corresponds to the adjective meaning only!
However, it’s simple to make a noun from it: just add -na and you have the partial
noun you need (except for the word for half does not fit to this scheme at all). For
1/2 and 1/4 there are additional words that behave like adverbs:
noun
adverb
1/2 polovina pol(a)
1/3 trećina
1/4 četvrtina četvrt
1/5 petina
etc.
part dio (dijel-) m ®
I have listed also a generic noun meaning just part. How to use them? Well, just use
the above nouns as any nouns on -na, and the other noun (one you want to express
part of) goes after it, in the genitive singular:
Ovo N je trećina N jabuke G . This is a third of an apple.
Imam trećinu A jabuke G . I have a third of an apple.
Instead of polovina, adverb pol(a) is much more frequent; it doesn’t change, of
course, since it’s not a noun, but an adverb:
Ovo N je pola jabuke G . This is half an apple.
Imam pola jabuke G . I have half of an apple.
Such partial quantities are in singular; pol(a) is neuter and other partial nouns are
feminine, as expected:
Pola jabuke G je bilo na stolu DL . Half of an apple was on the table.
Trećina N jabuke G je bila na stolu DL . A third of an apple was on the table.
Just remember that you are talking about a third (of something) and not about
something.
In Croatia, bread is usually sold in loaves and some types are cut in half if required
by the customer. So you can ask at the bread counter, or in a bakery:
Molim Vas A pola kruha G . ‘A half of bread, please.’ (i.e. a half of a loaf of bread) 2pl