EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 54 When, While, Unl, Before, Aer 315 / 600
Kuham meso A dok ne postane mekano N . I cook meat until it gets soft. postati
The verb postati (postane) perf. become is another verb that can be translated as
get. Actually, we could have used (bude) in this sentence, with almost no difference
in meaning. The conjunction is not dok ne, the verb in the clause is just negated.
Let’s put it to the past tense:
Kuhala sam meso A dok nije postalo mekano N . I cooked meat until it got soft.
The action (cooking) lasts until the event in the time clause happens (which is an
instant, since it’s a perf. verb). Also, we don’t use a subject pronoun in the clauses
above, since it’s obvious that the subject is meso meat.
Something important: negation in this case is not an ordinary one: it’s a kind of
limited, almost ‘empty’. It implies that something will be accomplished.
Therefore, words like nikad(a) never, ništa nothing and so are normally not used
in such clauses. Despite the negated verb, the overall meaning of the clause is not
negative.
So it’s normal to say:
Pokušavao sam dok nisam našao nešto A . I tried until I found
naći past-m
something.
This is an apparent exception to the ‘all-negative’ rule. Actually, the sentence implies
that the speaker eventually found something, not nothing. So nešto something will
be used here.
It’s common to emphasize dok (in this role) as sve dok:
Kuhala sam meso A sve dok nije postalo mekano N .
Perfective-like verbs, such as vidjeti see are usually understood as plain perfective
verbs, so they can be used only with dok + negation (i.e. meaning until); so, we can’t
say while I see... in Croatian:
Ne znam dok ne vidim. I don’t know until I see.
If something happens when you see something, use kad(a).
You must pay attention when you need prije nego što and nakon što: Croatian
cannot simply reuse prije or poslije with clauses. For example:
(1) I’ll clean the yard before the rain. (before + noun)
(2) I’ll clean the house [before the guests arrive]. (before starts a clause)
Here English just uses the same word to start a clause as the one put before a noun.
The Croatian conjunction is more complicated:
(1) Očistit ću dvorište A prije kiše G .
(2) Očistit ću kuću A prije nego što dođu gosti N .
doći
The three words prije nego što behave as one unit, and second-place words must