Learn Croatian & Serbian language

Živim u gradu, a moji roditelji – mama i tata – žive na selu.

I live in the city, and my parents – mom and dad – live in the village.

Imam jednog brata i jednu sestru.

I have one brother and one sister.

Živimo svi zajedno.

We all live together.

Prijatelji/drugari me često pitaju: „S kim živiš?“

My friends often ask me: “Who do you live with?”

Ja kažem: „Živim s bratom i sestrom.“ 

I say: “I live with my brother and sister.”

„Zašto ne živiš s mamom i tatom – s roditeljima?“ – pitaju me.

“Why don’t you live with mom and dad – with your parents?” they ask me.

Jer moja braća i ja idemo na fakultet u Zagrebu/u Beogradu pa živimo u stanu, a naši roditelji žive u kući na selu.

Because my brothers and I go to university in Zagreb/Beograd, so we live in an apartment, and our parents live in a house in the countryside.

Ovdje/ovde imamo prijatelje/drugare i susjede/komšije.

We have friends and neighbors here.

Moja sestra ima dvije dobre prijateljice, moj brat ima dva dobra prijatelja, a ja imam samo jednu prijateljicu, ali volim se družiti sa susjedom Marinom.

My sister has two good friends (female), my brother has two good friends (male), and I only have one friend, but I like hanging out with my neighbor Marina.

Moja susjeda/komšinica Marina je 2 godine starija od mene i već ima muža i jedno dijete/dete, a ja nemam ni muža ni djecu.

My neighbor Marina is 2 years older than me and already has a husband and one child, while I have neither husband nor children.

Njezin muž Filip je naš dobar susjed/komšija. Često se družimo svi zajedno.

Her husband Filip is our good neighbor. We often hang out together.

VERBS

In the previous story, we introduced the verbs -ati group (imati), -iti (raditi), and -ći (ići- idem -irregular). Here we’re introducing one more verb type.

Živjeti/živeti is -(j)eti group. Let’s see how to conjugate all the verbs whose infinitives end with -(j)eti:

CRO: živ – jeti → remove -jeti

SRB: živ – eti → remove -eti

Ja živ + im → živim

Ti živiš

On, ona živi

Mi živimo

Vi živite

Oni, one žive

As you can see, the suffixes are almost the same as in all verbs (m, š, 0, mo, te, e).

ONE MORE IRREGULAR VERB – KAZATI (TO SAY, TO TELL)

It’s an interesting verb because it is used mostly in the present tense while in the past and future tenses, we use its synonym – reći [about past and future tenses later]. 

Ja kažem

Ti kažeš

On, ona kaže

Mi kažemo

Vi kažete

Oni, one kažu

LOKATIV – introduce one more grammatical case

In the previous story, we introduced the most common case – akuzativ. To review, akuzativ is used for direct object in the sentences, for the noun after the verb. Examples:

Imam sestru.  (I have a sister)

Volim brata. (I love my brother)

Tražim mobitel. (I’m searching for a mobile phone)

Now it’s time to see one more function of AKUZATIV – it is used when talking about direction.

Jer moja braća i ja idemo na fakultet u Beograd, pa živimo u stanu, a roditelji u kući na selu.

Idemo na fakultet → We go where? – It’s about direction so we put the destination (fakultet) in akuzativ form.

In this example, fakultet is masculine noun and inanimate so it doesn’t change, but when we use a feminine word, it changes. For example: Idem u školu. 

LOKATIV

In the other hand, when you talk about position, location (and not direction), use LOKATIV.

As its name says, this grammatical case signifies location but not destination → use it to tell where you are and not where you are going. 

Jer moja braća i ja idemo na fakultet u Beograd, pa živimo u stanu, a roditelji u kući na selu.

All the bolded nouns are in the the lokativ form. Here are their basic forms – NOMINATIV:

Stan – masculine noun → u stanu (in LOKATIV a masculine noun gets the suffix -u)

Kuća – feminine → u kući (feminine nouns get the suffix -i)

Selo – neutral → na selu (neutral nouns get -u, just like masculine)

When to use u (in) and when na (on)?

Both for direction (akuzativ) and location (lokativ) we use the same prepositions – u or na.

U is usually used for closed places:

house – kuća – u kući;

school – škola – u školi;

office – CRO ured – u uredu / SRB kancelarija – u kancelariji

Na is used for open places (beach: plaža – na plaži; square: trg – na trgu).

There are some exceptions: u + park; na + fakultet, na + posao

Also, all cities and villages get u and islands na (Idemo u Zagreb, u Beograd; Idemo na Siciliju, na Hvar…)

Numbers 1 and 2

As you can notice, numbers 1 and 2 have 3 forms – masculine, feminine and neutral. Other numbers have only one form.

Number 1

The basic form of the number 1 is: 

Jedan brat, jedna sestra, jedno dijete/dete

In akuzativ, it sounds like: 

Imam jednog brata i jednu sestru. Ona ima muža i jedno dijete/dete.

Number 2

Dva brata, dvije CRO/dve SRB sestre, dva djeteta/deteta

In akuzativ, the number 2 stays the same as its basic form:

Moja sestra ima dvije/dve dobre prijateljice/drugarice,a  brat dva dobra prijatelja/druga.

As you can see, with the number 2, it begins plural so we need to apply the rule: 

MASCULINE NOUNS

1 jedan brat

2 dva brata – genitiv form (one more grammatical case we’ll learn later)

3 tri brata

4 četiri brata

… and with all other numbers the masculine words get the suffix -a

The same is with neutral gender: jedno jaje, dva jaja, tri jaja… (jaje – egg)

FEMININE GENDER

1 – jedna sestra

2 (dvije), 3 (tri), 4 (četiri) sestre (plural)

5 pet sestara

6 šest sestara

… all more than 5 get genitiv form 

But always consider the last digit. If there are 21 sisters, it may seem ridiculous but in the Serbo-Croatian world, it’s grammatically singular because the last digit is 1, so it will be – dvadeset jedna sestra. Remember the rule for “godina” from the previous story – the rule is the same for all the feminine nouns. 

Zovem se Tamara. Moje ime je Tamara, a prezime Novaković, ali svi me zovu Tami. My name is Tamara. My name is Tamara, and surname Novaković, but everybody calls me Tami.

To je moj nadimak. Imam 24 (dvadeset četiri) godine, uskoro 25 (dvadeset pet) godina.

That’s my nickname. I am 24 years old, soon to be 25.

Imam veliku obitelj/porodicu. Imam majku, oca, brata, sestru, baku i djeda/dedu.

I have a big family. I have a mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother and grandfather.

Moja mama ima 50 (pedeset) godina, a moj tata 53 (pedeset tri) godine.

My mom is 50 years old and my dad is 53 years old.

Moj brat je stariji od mene, a sestra mlađa od mene.

My brother is older than me and my sister is younger than me.

Brat ima 31 (trideset jednu) godinu, a sestra 17 (sedamnaest) godina.

My brother is 31 years old, and my sister is 17 years old.

Baka i deda imaju 66 (šezdeset šest) godina.

Grandparents are 66 years old.

Mama, tata, brat i ja imamo posao – radimo, a sestra ide u školu.

Mom, dad, brother and I have jobs – we work, and my sister goes to school.

Baka i deda su u mirovini/penziji.

Grandma and grandpa are retired.

Imam i prijatelje/drugare. Moj najbolji prijatelj/drug se zove Marko, a moja najbolja prijateljica/drugarica Klara.

I also have friends. My best friend’s (male) name is Marko, and my best friend’s (female) name is Klara.

How to introduce yourself in Croatian & Serbian? 

Just as Tamara did – with the verb “zvati se”.

The verb “zvati” means “to call” and you can use it when talking about calling someone, on the phone, for example. But if you include the pronoun “se”, you can use it to say “My name is”. The pronoun “se” means myself so the literal translation would be “I call myself Tamara”. But, of course, it’s just a phrase used to introduce yourself.

Kako se zoveš?  – What’s your name? Or literally “How do you call yourself?”

You see, the pronoun “se” can mean myself, yourself, herself, himself… remember this pronoun because it often appears as a part of some verbs. 

Another way to say “Zovem se” is “Moje ime je” – literally my name is. 

How old are you? – Koliko imaš godina?

In Serbo-Croatian, we use the verb to have – imati – to speak about age. Literally, I have 24 years – Imam 24 godine. 

The year is godina and it changes depending on the number after which it comes:

If the last digit is 1 – Imam 1 (jednu), 21 (dvadeset jednu), 31 (trideset jednu)… godinu.

If the last difits are 2, 3, 4 – Imam dvije CRO/dve SRB godine (as well as 22 – dvadeset dvije/dve godine, 32 – trideset dvije/dve godine, 43 – četrdeset tri godine)

All after 5 – Imam 5 (pet) godina, 25 (dvadeset pet) godina, 49 (četrdeset devet godina), 60 (šezdeset) godina…

VERBS

IMATI is a regular verb. We can use it to see how to make present tense in Croatian & Serbian:

1. Remove – ti from infinitive (imati – ima-ti)
2. Add certain suffixes. For first person singular (ja) it’s always -m → imam. Let’s see the rest of the conjugation:

gram.person	verb – IMATI	Example from the text
ja (I)	imam	Imam 24 godine.
ti (you)	imaš
on, ona, ono (he, she, it)	ima	Moja mama ima 50 godina.
mi (we)	imamo	Mama, tata, brat i ja imamo posao.
vi (you all)	imate
oni, one (they) they male, they female	imaju

The same is with other regular verbs, for example, RADITI (to do, to work, to make):

Mama, tata, brat i ja imamo posao – mi radimo.

But some verbs are irregular, such as IĆI (to go):

gram.person	verb – RADITI	*verb- IĆI
ja	radim	idem
ti	radiš	ideš
on, ona, ono	radi	ide (Sestra ide u školu.)
mi	radimo	idemo
vi	radite	idete
oni, one	rade*	idu*

**Also, you can see that 3rd person plural (oni, one) is different. It depends on the verb type (-iti group (like: raditi), -ati group (imati) -ći group (ići) or -jeti group which we will introduce in the next story.

Also, you could notice that we don’t use pronouns – ja, ti, on, ona,ono, mi, vi, oni, one – in the sentences if it’s not needed to emphasize something.

Just say the verb: instead of ja imam, it’s more natural to say only – imam. It’s clear that it’s first person singular (ja) because of the suffix -m which is used only for “ja”. The same is with other grammatical persons.

Introduce the first Croatian & Serbian grammatical case – AKUZATIV

With the verb IMATI, a direct object always comes into the sentence. What is it? 

Example:

Ja imam sestru.

ja – subject in the sentence

imam – verb

sestra – direct object, the object of the verb, in this case, the object of having

In Serbo-Croatian, the direct object is always in AKUZATIV, which means that you need to modify the word a little bit by changing or adding the suffix. Which suffix you will add? It depends on the gender of the noun. Let’s introduce 3 GENDERS IN SERBO-CROATIAN language:

MASCULINE

Masculine words are not only the words that refer to male people in reality but also any word that ends with a consonant (vocals are a, e, i, o, u; all other letters are consonants)

For example: ormar (wardrobe, closet), mobitel (mobile phone), televizor (TV)… all these are objects, things but we talk about them as “he” – on, and not “it” – ono. 

These words get one kind of suffix in AKUZATIV form:

–suffix “-a” if the word refers to people or animals (alive beings):

Imam brata.

– and no suffix if it’s about inanimate:

Imam televizor.

FEMININE

All the words that end with -a are considered feminine.

They change the last “a” for “u” in akuzativ:

Imam sestru.

NEUTRAL

These words end with -o or -e.

Examples: mlijeko CRO/mleko SRB  (milk), dijete CRO/dete SRB (child)

In akuzativ, they stay the same as in the basic form (the basic form is called nominativ).

That’s why the family members: mama, tata, sestra, brat, baka, djed in the sentence sound like:

Imam mamu, tatu, brata, sestru, baku i djeda.

Exceptions

Note that tata is an exception in masculine gender: in reality, tata is a man (dad) but grammatically it’s feminine because it ends with -a so it’s declined as feminine, meaning it gets suffix -u in akuzativ. (Imam tatu.)

The same is for dida/deda and the Serbian word for a male neighbour – komšija.

VARIATIONS IN VOCABULARY

The names for grandfather are various. In Dalmatia, Croatian region, and on the Croatian coast formal djed is changed to dida. In other parts of Croatia as well as in Serbia, people use deda. In Serbia, people also use the word deka. 

The name for grandmother also differs. In some regions, people say baka and in other regions baba. It’s interesting that in the same time, baba is used for a woman who irritates you.

Moreover, words for a friend are different. In Croatia, prijatelj is used only for male friends and prijateljica for female friends. (There are always two forms for somebody: doktor-doktorica, frizer- frizerka (hairstyler) and so on)

In Serbia, there are prijatelj, drug and drugar – prijateljica, drugarka, drugarica.

In Bosnia, it’s mostly used jaran – jaranica but other variations are also familiar to Bosnian people.