It’s nice to be able to say Ana is reading or I’m cooking, but it would be even better to be able to say what you are reading or cooking!
Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin have grammatical cases. It means that words change a bit when used in sentences. For instance, when you express what you are reading or even whom you’re waiting for – that’s called object. This ‘role’ requires a form of a noun that’s usually called accusative case or sometimes the object case. Since accusative is a long word, it’s often shortened to just A.
(Nouns are words standing for a more or less specific object, person or idea, something that can perform an action, e.g. sister, cat, or can be an object of an action, e.g. you can eat a pizza).
4.1 Nouns in -a
Not all nouns change in accusative in the same way. Some don’t change at all. A large group of nouns in end in -a; they all change that ending to -u in accusative. For instance:
ja·buka apple |
pje·sma song |
The default, ‘dictionary’ forms listed above are also considered a ‘grammatical case’ and are called nominative (just N for short).
We are now able to say:
A·na či·ta· knji·gu. Ana is reading a book.
Ivan pi·jepiti kafu. Ivan is drinking coffee.
Warning. English prefers using ‘light’ or ‘generic’ verbs like make in many circumstances, so you usually make coffee, make dinner and so on. Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin have almost no such verbs, and you have to use always specific verbs – for example, kuhati cook if you prepare food or drink by cooking.
In sentences like A·na či·ta· knji·gu, the word A·na is called subject. So, the N case is sometimes called the subject case:
| subject ↓ |
|
object ↓ |
| A·na | či·ta· | knji·gu. |
| N | A |
In English, the word order is almost always subject-verb-object. It’s also the most common order in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, but it’s not always so, as you’ll see later.
If you are now puzzled where the English a (in a book) got lost – it does not exist in Serbian, Bosnian and Montenegrin, there’s no difference between a book and the book. (I’ll show later how you can express a or the if you really need it.)
4.2 Nouns in -o or -e
Many general nouns end in -o or -e. They usually don’t change at all in the accusative case, that is, they can be used as objects in their dictionary (or nominative) form. For instance:
|
a·u·to
car ju·tro morning me·so meat ne·bo sky, skies |
pi·smo·
letter pi·vo beer vi·no· wine vo·će· fruit, fruits |
We can (and must!) use them as objects without any change:
Pi·jempiti pivo. I’m drinking beer.
Jedemjesti voće. I’m eating fruits.
Ana vozi a·u·to. Ivana is driving a car.
There are two useful and similar verbs, they both change their vowel to -i in the present tense:
| vi·djeti (vi·di) (can) see | vo·ljle·ti (vo·li) like, love |
Some examples:
Vi·dim ne·bo. I (can) see the sky.
A·na ne·_vo·li pi·vo. Ana doesn’t like beer.
The behavior of names in -o is a bit different, it will be covered in the next chapter.
4.3 Nouns in a consonant
Then, many nouns end in a consonant. Their behavior depends on what they stand for. If they stand for anything except people or animals, they don’t change in accusative:
brod ship |
ručak lunch, dinner |
Let’s introduce two more useful verbs:
poznavati (poznaje) know (someone)
rezati (reže) cut
There’s a special verb for knowing people (and cities), like French connaître. (Also, this is not an error, the verb poznavati has a different stress in infinitive and present. Such shifts specific for individual verbs is what makes stress complex in Croatian.)
Again, we can use the nouns listed above as objects without any change:
A·na gleda film. Ana is watching a movie.
Režemrezati hljle·b. I’m cutting bread.
Goran pi·jepiti sok. Goran is drinking juice.
Ivana kuha ručak. Ivana is cooking lunch.
Čekam voz. I’m waiting for a train.
However, nouns that end in a consonant, but stand for people or animals do change in accusative. You must add an -a to them. This applies to e.g. following nouns:
bra·t
brother | si·n son |
Let’s put them to use:
A·na gleda konja. Ana is watching a horse.
Ivan čeka brata. ▶ Ivan is waiting for his brother.
Goran vidi galeba. Goran sees a seagull.
The accusative ending applies to names as well:
A·na čeka Milana. Ana is waiting for Milan.
Josip poznajepoznavati Ivana. Josip knows Ivan.
This applies to names having more than one word (e.g. with the last name) and to non-native names as well – each word in the (masculine) name has to get an -a:
Čekamo Ivana Horvata. We’re waiting for Ivan Horvat.
Gledam Brada Pitta. I’m watching Brad Pitt.
When you hear or read a sentence where names are expected to be in the accusative case, you have to be able to work them back to the default (nominative) forms. You simply cannot understand Croatian without understanding cases – that’s why I have introduced them from the start:
Čekam Ivana. I’m waiting for Ivan. (Ivan = male)
Čekam Ivanu. I’m waiting for Ivana. (Ivana = female)
4.4 Asking about objects
Finally, let me explain how you can ask about objects. Start questions with the following question words:
ko·g / ko·ga·
who (as an object)
šta·
what
For example, you can ask what Ana is watching, or who Goran is waiting for. There’s a very important point: the answers must be again in the accusative case, as they are still considered objects:
Šta· A·na gleda? What is Ana watching?
— Film. A movie. (A!)
— Konja. A horse. (A!)
Šta· Ivan pi·jepiti? What is Ivan drinking?
— Kafu. Coffee. (A!)
Ko·ga· Goran čeka? Who is Goran waiting for?
— A·nu. Ana. (A!)
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