EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 16 Giving to Someone, Going to Someone 97 / 600
Ana N se smije Goranu DL . Ana is laughing at Goran.
smijati se
So in Croatian – if the DL case kind of corresponds to English to — you literally
‘marvel to someone’ and ‘laugh to someone’... (which sounds wrong in English, of
course).
There’s another, completely different use of the DL case. It is possible with verbs of
motion:
ići (ide) go trčati (trči) run
If you are going or running to someone, it’s expressed in Croatian ® with DL:
Ana N ide Ivanu DL . Ana is going to Ivan. (where he is)
Trčim mami DL . I’m running to my Mum.
(You see again that it’s implied whose Mum it is.)
It’s often used when you go to some shop or office held by someone, e.g.:
frizer hairdresser zubar dentist
For example:
Ivan N sutra ide zubaru DL . Ivan is going to the dentist tomorrow.
As with other masculine nouns that have two last vowels underlined (in my
notation), the stress moves – you can see it in the example (zubar → zubaru).
As a very special use, the DL of the noun kuća house can be used as destination: it
means home, even if you live in an apartment:
Ana N danas ide kući DL . Ana is going home today.
The same meaning, especially in western and northern regions of Croatia, can be
expressed with the following adverb:
doma home (as destination)
There’s yet another use of the DL case, with certain nouns and adjectives. For
ići
trčati
example, this adjective is often accompanied by a noun in DL (this again corresponds
to English to):
sličan (sličn-) similar
For example:
Višnja N je slična trešnji DL . Sour cherry is similar to cherry.
In the previous sentence, trešnja cherry was put in DL.
________
® In the “Ekavian” pronunciation, which completely dominates in Serbia, the verb
smijati (smije) se² has the unexpected form smejati (smeje) se².
ići
ići