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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 13 She Loves Me: Pronouns and Properes 76 / 600

13 She Loves Me: Pronouns and Properties

Let me introduce more pronouns and continue with uses of adjectives and of the

verb biti (je² +) be.

We have learned some personal pronouns (ti, vi, on...) but not all. Also, we’ve seen

only their subject forms, i.e. the nominative case. What if we want to use pronouns

as objects? What if we want to say I am? How to say I love you? How to say she

loves me?

As in English, the forms of pronouns are not regular and have to be learned.

Fortunately, they are not too complicated (and two of them are similar to English

pronouns). Here are the forms for the first two persons (I, you, we):

singular plural

pers. N A N A

1st ja me² mi nas²

2nd ti te² vi vas²

To help you learn various forms of pronouns, they will be underlined with a pale

blue line, and information about them will be printed on the right margin (e.g. 2 =

2nd person, 2pl = 2nd person plural, 3f = 3rd person, feminine gender).

Like the word se², personal pronouns in accusative must be put to the second

position in a sentence (check 7 Verbs with Obligatory Objects.) For example:

Ana¹ me² čeka. Ana is waiting for me.

1

As usual, the second position should not be understood mechanically. Two or more

words, if they form a phrase, can occupy the first position. It’s normal to say:

Moj prijatelj¹ te² čeka. My friend is waiting for you.

2

(I’ll explain the possessive adjective moj my in the next chapter. It’s a bit special, e.g.

it never gets an -i in masc.)

Again, you’ll find sometimes in books and newspapers that the second position is

forced, even splitting combinations adjective + noun. That’s never used in speech

(except maybe in very formal speeches, e.g. in the news on the public radio, or in

some rural areas):

Moj¹ te² prijatelj čeka. (the same meaning, very formal, in writing)

2

Then, of course, there’s the famous example:

Volim te. I love you. (to someone you’re familiar with)

2

As I’ve already explained, Croatian vi/vas stands both for plural (y’all, you guys) and

respect (you sir/madam). The second use is usually distinguished by using a capital V

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