EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 15 Locaons 89 / 600
15 Locations
We are able to say that we are going to school or to work, but what about being in
school, or at work?
It turns out we again need the prepositions u¨ and na¨, but with another noun form
– the dative or locative case (just DL for short) ®. Most books list them as separate
cases, but they are really the same in all everyday situations. (There’s a difference in
tone of some words in Standard Croatian, but most people don’t have it in their
speech.)
This table summarizes rules to put nouns into the DL case, starting from the
nominative (dictionary) form:
noun type (N)
DL
nouns in -a (≈ fem.) -a → -i
neuter nouns (≈ in -o, -e) -o or -e → -u
masc. nouns not in -a add -u
fem. not in -a (e.g. noć) add -i
As you can see, all nouns get an ending now, and there’s no distinction for people
and animals – that applies only to the accusative case. There are again only two
endings to remember: one for nouns in -a and feminine nouns not in -a, and another
for all other nouns. Let’s take the following nouns:
kolač cake
kuća house
kuhinja kitchen
ladica drawer ®
ormar closet, wardrobe ®
peć f oven, furnace
soba room
stan apartment
With them, and other nouns we have already learned, can make sentences like
these:
Ana je u kući. Ana is in the house.
Ivan je u Zagrebu. Ivan is in Zagreb.
Spavamo u hotelu. We sleep in a hotel.
Riba pliva u moru. A fish is swimming in the sea.
Ivan je u školi. Ivan is at school.
Kuhamo u kuhinji. We’re cooking in the kitchen.
Kolač je u peći. The cake is in the oven.
Of course, we can use objects as well:
Kuham čaj u kuhinji. I’m cooking tea in the kitchen.
Gledamo televiziju u sobi. We’re watching TV in the room.