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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 11 Colors, More Adjecves and Adverbs 67 / 600

Polica je niska. The shelf is low.

Unlike English, it’s also used for short people (who are ‘low’ in Croatian):

Ana je niska. Ana is ‘low’. (= short)

The adjective kratak (kratk-) short is used in Croatian only to describe movies,

bridges, roads, pieces of wood, etc.

In a similar fashion, books and people can be debeo (debel-) thick:

Knjiga je debela. The book is thick.

Ivana je debela. Ivana is ‘thick’. (= fat, plump)

Furthermore, Croatian has two adjectives corresponding to English free:

besplatan (besplatn-) free (of charge)

slobodan (slobodn-) free (of restrictions), unoccupied

You would use the first adjective only when something is offered without payment,

e.g. a free sample, free show etc., and the other adjective in all other

circumstances. This is basically the same difference as German kostenlos vs. frei, or

Spanish gratuito vs. libre.

You will notice that neuter forms of adjectives are often used as adverbs, i.e. words

that modify verbs and other adjectives. For example, the adjective spor slow in the

neuter form sporo means slow (before a neuter noun, or when describing it) or

slowly when used without a noun:

Ana vozi sporo. Ana drives slowly.

Many adjectives are used like that, and it usually corresponds to English -ly, e.g.

užasno is the neuter form of terrible, but also stands for English terribly.

However, some adjectives when used as adverbs change meaning. They are best

remembered as separate words. The most often used ones are:

adjective adverb

jak strong jako very / very much

pun full puno a lot ®

For instance, the first sentence contains an adjective, but the others contain adverbs

of intensity:

Vino je jako. The wine is strong. (about vino wine = a noun)

Jako je vruće. It’s very hot. (about vruće hot)

Auto je jako brz. The car is very fast. (about brz fast)

m

Goran jako voli čokoladu. Goran likes chocolate very much. (about the verb)

When used with another adverb or adjective, jako corresponds to English very (e.g.

very hot); with a verb, it corresponds to very much.

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