EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 51 For Days: Approximate Periods, Repeons and References 296 / 600
There’s another, a bit unexpected way to express approximate duration – using
short expressions for a day or two, a week or two and so on: just append the number
two to the noun, e.g. dan-dva. Of course, the number must be in the right gender,
according to the noun it’s after:
Na moru DL ću biti tjedan A -dva. I’ll be at the seaside for a week or two.
Radovi DL će trajati mjesec A -dva. The works will last for a month or two.
Učila sam hrvatski A godinu A -dvije. I was studying Croatian for a year or two.
(Standard orthography demands they are separated by a hyphen; you’ll also see a
comma or other ways.)
Don’t forget that ongoing periods use the present tense in Croatian, and that they’re
often emphasized with već already, which is often not translated:
Ana N je dugo živjela u Splitu DL . Ana lived in Split for a long time. (but not now)
Ana N dugo živi u Zagrebu DL . Ana has lived in Zagreb for a long time. (and still does)
Ivan N već godinama I živi u Zagrebu DL . Ivan has lived in Zagreb for years.
This table summarizes approximate time periods:
adverb
I-pl
noun-number (A)
for a short time
for a long time
for hours
for days
for an hour or two
for a year or two
kratko
dugo
satima
danima
sat-dva
godinu-dvije
When asked how long something lasted, you can answer just with approximate
periods:
Koliko dugo si živio tamo? How long did you live there?
— Jako dugo. For a very long time.
— Godinama A . For years.
Koliko (dugo) ste bili u Hrvatskoj DL ? How long were you in Croatia?
— Kratko. For a short time.
It’s possible to express approximate ‘round-trips’ with na¨ + kratko or dugo, but not
with I-pl (e.g. danima for days). Both are used also with vrijeme, e.g. na dugo
vrijeme:
Odlazim na jako kratko vrijeme A . I’m leaving for a very short time.
Next, it’s possible to say that something happens or is done during something else. If
that ‘something else’ is expressed by a noun (with optional adjectives to describe it),
the most common way is to use:
za vrijeme + G during