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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 52 Stand, Become, Exist, Cease 300 / 600

Nije mu DL stalo. He doesn’t care.

3m/n

Ani DL je° stalo do Gorana G . Ana cares about Goran. / Goran matters to Ana.

Ani DL je bilo stalo do mene G . Ana cared about me.

Compare it with e.g. Ani je bilo drago – it’s exactly the same structure, apart from

the do¨ + G.

The infinitive (and consequently, past forms) of the impf. verb stajati (staje) are

exactly the same as for the verb meaning stand, but since the impf. verbs are mostly

used in the present tense, confusion is rare.

The pair stajati (staje) ~ stati (stane) is likely the most important pair in Croatian,

since there’s a number of very common and important verbs derived from it:

nastajati (nastaje) ~ nastati (nastane) come to exist

nestajati (nestaje) ~ nestati (nestane) disappear

ostajati (ostaje) ~ ostati (ostane) stay, remain

postajati (postaje) ~ postati (postane) become

prestajati (prestaje) ~ prestati (prestane) stop (doing something), cease

The perf. verbs in the pairs above are sometimes stressed as nastati (nastane) – the

‘western’ stress is on a different syllable in present forms. (The stress never moves

to the negation in the present tense of these pairs.)

If you are confused by similarity of impf. and perf. verbs listed above, there’s one

simple difference: the impf. verbs have a -j- in all their forms – infinitive, present,

past, some forms I haven’t explained yet – and the perf. verbs never have it in any

form.

The verb pair derived with o- has come curious properties. The perf. verb ostati

(ostane / ostane) behaves a bit like an imperfective verb. For example, it can be

used with time periods, unlike other perf. verbs. Compare:

Ostao je u bolnici DL dva sata 24 . He remained in hospital for two hours.

Čekao je u bolnici DL dva sata 24 . He waited in hospital for two hours.

You cannot do it with e.g. napisati (napiše) perf. write. Therefore, the impf. verb

ostajati (ostaje) is basically used in the present tense only.

Otherwise, the verb is very similar to English stay and remain: you can stay

somewhere, something, with someone, etc. It’s a very versatile verb:

Ostao je kod kuće G . He stayed at home.

Ostali su zajedno. They stayed together.

The past form of the perf. verb is used as a real quantity adjective (as with other

past forms used as adjectives, the form with -i, ostali is the basic form):

Ostalo tijesto N je u frižideru DL . The remaining pastry is in the fridge.

It’s often used as a pronoun as well; in the same way as other adjectives, e.g. sav

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