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Nikad nisam davao poklone nikome. Ni za rođendan, ni za Božić, ni za Novu godinu…

I never gave gifts to anyone. Not for a birthday, not for Christmas, not for the New Year…

Uvijek/uvek sam mislio da je to glup običaj.

I always thought that this was a stupid custom.

Moji prijatelji/drugari su uvijek bili dosadni s pitanjem: “Kome ćeš dati poklon za Božić?”

My friends were always boring with the question: “Who are you going to give a present for Christmas?”

A kad je Božić prošao, pitali su: „Što/šta si dao curi za poklon? Što/šta si dao bratu za Božić?“ 

And when Christmas was over, they asked: “What did you give your girlfriend as a gift?” What did you give your brother for Christmas?”

Međutim, to se promijenilo/promenilo kad mi se rodio sin.

However, that changed when my son was born.

Kad sam vidio/video kako je sretan/srećan kad dobije poklon od mene, rekao sam: „Od sad ću mu uvijek/uvek kupovati poklone.“

When I saw how happy he was when he got a present from me, I said, “From now on, I will always buy him presents.”

 Žena i ja smo kupovali djetetu/detetu poklon sve dok nije odrastao.

My wife and I bought a present for our son until he grew up.

Kad je postao punoljetan/punoletan, postao je kao ja pa više ne dobivam poklone od njega, a želim. Eh, karma. 

When he became an adult, he became like me, so I don’t get presents from him anymore, but I want. Eh, karma.

Dativ

From this story, we can learn DATIV. It is a grammatical case used to express giving something (material or figurative) to someone. Those receiving the thing, an object (in AKUZATIV) is in DATIV form. Example:

Šta si dao curi za poklon?

The subject is TI.

The object is something that you (ti) gave.

And cura (girlfriend) is the recipient of this gift so the word cura is in the dativ form – curi.

The same is in the question:

Šta si dao bratu za Božić? (brat – masculine singular in DATIV – bratu)

How does DATIV sound? Which are the suffixes?

The same as for LOKATIV. Completely the same. Therefore, it could be only one case since they have the same suffixes but grammar separates it into two because of their different functions (LOKATIV is used to express location and DATIV for the recipient).

Questions in DATIV

You know that the question words “tko/ko” and “što/šta” sound differently when they are in other cases. In DATIV, they sound:

tko/ko – komu or kome (both versions are used in both Croatian and Serbian; they are completely the same)

što/šta – čemu

Actually, the questions are the same as for lokativ.

Kome ćeš dati poklon za Božić? (Whom will you give a Christmas present to?)

NOBODY & NOTHING in DATIV

When you want to say no one (NITKO/NIKO) or someone (NETKO/NEKO) as well as nothing (NIŠTA) and something (NEŠTO) but these words have the function of the recipient in the sentence so you need to use dativ form, just change nominativ part (tko/ko, što/šta) with dativ form (komu, čemu).

The result is: nikome, ničemu

Nikad nisam davao poklone nikome.

PERSONAL PRONOUNS IN DATIV

We’ll learn all the personal pronouns in each case in the stories on the next level but now we’ll just explain in short.

To se promijenilo/promenilo kad mi se rodio sin.

Here, the pronoun “ja” is in dativ form. It is used instead of the possessive pronoun (moj). This sentence could sound also like:

To se promijenilo/promenilo kad se rodio moj sin.

It is grammatically super correct. However, natives rather use the version with the pronoun in dativ.

One more example of pronoun in dativ. Now it’s about “on” (he):

Od sad ću mu uvijek/uvek kupovati poklone.

Double negation

In Croatian and Serbian, when using any negative word such as never, no one, nothing, nowhere, and so on, the verb must be in the negative form. It is called double negation.

Nikad nisam davao poklone nikome.

Actually, here it’s about triple negation 😉

nikad + nisam davao + nikome

Since we used the negative words nikad and nikome, we needed to negate the verb. It would sound really strange if you wouldn’t negate the verb, like in English:

Nikad sam davao poklone nikome.

If you want to say I never gave gifts to anyone, you need to use the negative form in Serbo-Croatian: Nikad nisam davao poklone nikome.

Ni and niti

Nikad nisam davao poklone nikome. Ni za rođendan, ni za Božić, ni za Novu godinu…

When listing something, for example, that you didn’t give gifts to anyone for a birthday, for Christmas, for New Year and so on but you want to emphasize that you didn’t give, use the word “ni”:

Ni za rođendan, ni za Božić, ni za Novu godinu…

Opposite, if the sentence would be positive, we’d use “i”:

I za rođendan, i za Božić, i za Novu godinu – uvijek/uvek sam davao poklone.

One more use of “ni” is when emphasizing “both” in a negative sentence. Something like neither and nor in English.

Example 1:

A: Je li zvala Marija? / Da li je zvala Marija? Ili Sanja? (Did Marija call? Or Sanja?)

B: Ni Marija ni Sanja nije zvala. (Neither Marija nor Sanja called).

Example 2:

A: Idemo na ručak? Ali nisam baš gladan. (Shall we go for lunch? But I’m not so hungry)

B: Ni ja. Nisam ni ja. Pričekat ćemo još pola sata onda. (Me neither. Neither am I. We’ll wait still half an hour)

When the sentence is positive, just change “ni” with “i”: I ja. I ja sam gladan.

NITI

In the same context but when there is a whole sentence, when there is a verb, it’s used “niti”. Example:

Niti sam davao poklone niti sam ih dobivao. (I neither gave nor received gifts)

With “niti”, the negation doesn’t apply.

Perfective and imperfective verbs

In the text, there are used two forms of the same verbs. They are called perfective (finished, completed) and imperfective (not finished).

For example:

to give: dati perfecitve) – davati (imperfective)

DATI: Šta si dao curi za poklon?

to get: dobiti (perfective) – dobivati (imperfective)

DOBITI: Kad sam vidio/video kako je sretan/srećan kad dobije poklon…

DOBIVATI: …pa više ne dobivam poklone…

All the verbs in Serbian and Croatian have these two forms. Let’s explain what each of them is used for.

PERFECTIVE form is used completed actions, something what is done, and IMPERFECTIVE form is purposed for actions in process, actions that last longer. Similar to “simple” and “continuous” tenses in English. Example:

Šta si dao bratu za Božić?

In that question, it’s used perfective form since the question is about action that happened once, lasted for a short time and it’s done.

But if we want to ask about continuous or repeated action, we use imperfective form. It would sound:

Šta si davao bratu za Božić? (Here we should add some context like: Šta si davao bratu za Božić kad ste bili mali?)

The same is with the sentence:

Žena i ja smo kupovali djetetu poklon sve dok nije odrastao.

Perfective form of the verb to buy is kupiti and imperfective form is kupovati.

In the sentence above it’s used imperfective because it refers to a longer period when they were buying gifts for their child.

Od sad ću mu uvijek kupovati poklone. – In that sentence, it’s also about long period (from now until, perhaps forever) so it’s used imperfective form, too.

We’ll learn more in detail about perfective and imperfective verbs in the next story.

Sve dok + negative

Žena i ja smo kupovali djetetu poklon sve dok nije odrastao.

Dok or sve dok plus a verb in negation is used to say “until”, “unless”.

Dok is also used to say “while” but then, there is not used negation.

Dok sam kupovala poklone, srela sam susjedu. (While I was buying gifts, I met my neighbor.)

Kupovala sam poklone dok nisam srela susjedu. (I was buying gifts until I met my neighbor.)