EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 87 Player, Playroom and Playground: Common Derivaons 478 / 600
the word for a person who reads will be explained below.
However, not all verbs make nouns with -ač: some use -telj, and they always mean
persons; the most common ones are:
verb
‘player’ noun
čitati read
čitatelj reader
gledati watch
gledatelj watcher
graditi build
graditelj builder
natjecati (natječe) se² compete natjecatelj competitor ®
roditi give birth
roditelj parent
slušati listen
slušatelj listener
As you can see, these nouns have the stress always on the third syllable from the
end, and preserve the vowel before the infinitive ending.
The feminine versions of these nouns are simply derived by adding -ica and moving
the stress to -telj-:
čitatelj reader (m) → čitateljica reader (f)
gledatelj watcher (m) → gledateljica watcher (f)
However, the noun roditelj parent is usually used in masculine forms only, regardless
of person’s sex.
Some of these verbs have a bit colloquial alternative nouns ® which end in -lac, with
the ‘case-base’ -oc-, while some other verbs have -lac (-oc-) nouns only:
verb
čitati read
gledati watch
slušati listen
misliti think
nositi carry
roniti dive
‘player’ noun
čitalac (čitaoc-) reader
gledalac (čitaoc-) watcher
slušalac (čitaoc-) listener
mislilac (mislioc-) thinker
nosilac (nosioc-) carrier
ronilac (ronioc-) diver
(colloq.) ®
It’s interesting that these nouns are often regularized in real life (to their case-base),
so you’ll hear (and read) mislioc, nosioc, ronioc etc. as well – just check the
Google hits (on the .hr domain):