EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 49 For 7 Hours: Definite Periods 287 / 600
some time there, and then you’ll return, and the whole thing will take two days (or a
week).
In Croatian, if you want to express duration of the whole ‘round-trip’, that is, going
somewhere – staying there – going back, where going back is implied, you have to
use the preposition na¨ + A:
(1) Odlazim na dva dana 24 .
(2) Otići ću na tjedan A dana G .
If you construct the sentence #1 without the na¨, it will sound extremely weird, as if
you spent two days trying to leave, but you haven’t left yet. The sentence #2 will be
ungrammatical without a preposition, since the verb is, of course, perfective.
Such ‘round-trip periods’ apply to all motion verbs that imply going somewhere, e.g.
ići (ide, išao, išla) go, and to some other verbs that will be explained later (e.g.
meaning borrow, etc.)
This summarizes common time periods in English and Croatian (the accusative time
phrases, marked with A*, must consist of two or more words, special phrases may
be used.):
definite period
for two days
‘time frame’
in two days
‘round-trip’ (e.g. leave)
for two days
A*
dva dana
za¨ + A ( * )
za dva dana
na¨ + A*
na dva dana
To ask how long something lasted, you can use koliko dugo (lit. ‘how much long’) or
just koliko:
Koliko dugo si živio tamo? How long did you live there?
— Jednu godinu A . For a year.
Koliko ste bili u Hrvatskoj DL ? How long were you in Croatia?
— Tjedan A dana G . For a week.
Answers must be proper time periods, that is, in A, at least 2 words, special phrases
can be used, prepositions according to the rules for time periods.
To ask about a ‘round-trip period’, you have to use na¨ before the question words
explained above. Answers will be again ‘round-trip periods’:
Na koliko odlaziš? How long are you leaving for?
— Na tjedan A dana G . For a week.
These were ways to express how long something took. You often have to express
something else – when something was going on, in relation to the present or some