EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 99 Aorist Tense and Other Marginal Features 499 / 600
eat (perf.) pojela → pojevši
For verbs where past-m form has an additional -a- in comparison to the past-f form,
it's derived from the past-m form, replacing -o with -vši:
can mogao m, mogla f → mogavši
grow up (perf.) odrastao m, odrasla f → odrastavši
They are very rare in speech, and rarely used in writing:
Vidjevši da neće uspjeti, odustala je. Having seen she wasn't going to succeed, she
gave up.
This meaning is usually expressed with kad when or nakon after instead of this rare
form.
However, the past adverb bivši, derived from the verb biti (je² +) be is often used,
but it's true adjective, with the meaning former, ex:
Vidjela je bivšeg muža. She saw her ex-husband.
As in English, the adjective bivši is used colloquially on its own, meaning exhusband/boyfriend,
or ex-wife/girlfriend, depending on the gender, but it still
changes like an adjective.
There's an interesting feature that was historically much more common: use of
indefinite adjectives. So far, I've explained only so-called definite adjectives, which
are usually used.
However, most adjectives also had indefinite forms. They could have different stress
and case endings. I won't go into details of stress, but the endings in singular are:
gender N A DL G I
neuter
-o
(-e)
= N
masc.
(not p/a)
masc.
(p/a)
dict.
= N
dict. -a
-u -a
-om
(-em)
As you can see, these look exactly like the noun endings.
Standard Croatian still insists on use of indefinite adjectives. They should be used
with indefinite nouns, i.e. when you would use the indefinite article in English:
Vidim crna konja. A see a black horse. (very rare in use)
Then, some adjectives, according to Standard Croatian, have only indefinite forms,
regardless of definiteness, and that includes all possessives in -ov or -ev, including
njegov his: