03.01.2020 Views

EasyCroatian_r47.an

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 16 Giving to Someone, Going to Someone 94 / 600

16 Giving to Someone, Going to Someone

There’s another use of the dative/locative case (DL), but without any prepositions:

you can state recipient of some action, for instance if you write a letter to someone,

you must express someone in DL in Croatian:

Ana N piše pismo A Ivanu DL . Ana is writing a letter to Ivan.

Ana N piše pismo A Ivani DL . Ana is writing a letter to Ivana.

When you rearrange words in English, you don’t need to use to anymore, but case

pisati

pisati

forms in Croatian don’t change at all:

Ana N piše pismo A Ivanu DL . Ana is writing a letter to Ivan.

Ana N piše Ivanu DL pismo A . Ana is writing Ivan a letter. (a bit less common

order)

Since words can be shuffled, to help you recognize cases, there are offline versions

(i.e. PDF and Kindle file) which mark cases in examples with superscript letters (N,

A, DL...) – they are recognized by ‘an’ in the file name. There are also versions

without these additional marks. Pick the version you prefer. Online, cases are

marked by colors.

Such use of DL is quite common with the following verbs, where something is given

(or shown, or offered) to someone:

davati (daje) give

nuditi offer

pokazivati (pokazuje) show

The following nouns are also useful:

čestitka (DL -ci) greeting card

dar gift

poklon gift

prodavati (prodaje) sell

vraćati return

slati (šalje) send

poruka (DL -ci) message

razglednica (picture) postcard

pisati

pisati

The verbs are used simply: what goes/is offered/shown to another person (gift,

postcard, whatever) is put in the accusative case, and the recipient in DL:

Ana N šalje čestitku A Ivanu DL . Ana is sending a greeting card to Ivan.

slati

Ana N daje poklon A Goranu DL . Ana is giving a gift to Goran.

davati

Croatian has two more verbs that have a very similar meaning to davati (daje), but

with them what’s given is a gift, possibly for a special occasion:

darivati (daruje)

make a gift, donate

poklanjati

The verb poklanjati is a bit more common in speech, and the other verb in formal

writing and newspapers. For example:

Ana N poklanja knjigu A Goranu DL . Ana is giving a book to Goran (as a gift).

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!