→ You can also read this chapter in French, Spanish or Finnish.
| N |
| A |
| DL |
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 pišepisati pismo Ivanu. Ana is writing a letter to Ivan.
Ana pišepisati pismo Ivani. Ana is writing a letter to Ivana.
When you rearrange words in English, you don’t need to use to anymore, but case forms in Croatian don’t change at all:
Ana pišepisati pismo Ivanu. Ana is writing a letter to Ivan.
Ana pišepisati Ivanu pismo. Ana is writing Ivan a letter. (a bit less common order)
To help you decipher cases while you’re learning them, they will be highlighted with different colors: blue for N, red for A, green for DL, if you place your mouse over an example sentence – or touch it, if you use a touchscreen. Moving your mouse (or touching somewhere else) will remove the highlight. Try it on the examples above!
Furthermore, there will be a small legend with case colors in the top right corner of each chapter that uses case highlighting.
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 |
prodavati (prodaje) sell vraćati return slati (šalje) send |
The following nouns are also useful:
|
čestitka (DL -ci) greeting card dar gift pismo letter |
poklon gift
poruka (DL -ci) message, note razglednica (picture) postcard |
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 šaljeslati čestitku Ivanu. Ana is sending a greeting card to Ivan.
Ana dajedavati poklon Goranu. Ana is giving a gift to Goran.
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) poklanjati | make a gift, donate |
The verb poklanjati is a bit more common in speech, and the other verb in formal writing and newspapers. For example:
Ana poklanja knjigu Goranu. Ana is giving a book to Goran (as a gift).
There’s a very rough but often effective rule: when an English verb takes two objects – and you order them without the word to – the first object corresponds to the Croatian DL case, and the second one to the A case:
| I’m writing | Ana | a letter. |
| He told | Ivan | the truth. |
| She will buy | Goran | a new bike. |
| I wish | you | a nice day. |
| In Croatian: | DL | A |
Of course, I haven’t explained past and future tenses yet, and I haven’t shown forms of pronouns in various cases – but it doesn’t matter, case use doesn’t depend on the tense, and whether you use nouns or pronouns. It’s always the same scheme.
There are two more useful verbs that use DL, but it does not have anything to do with receiving something – it’s just the way the verbs are. They are:
|
pomagati (pomaže) help pripadati belong |
For example:
(German uses here the same grammar as Croatian: German verbs gehören and helfen use the German Dative case. However, keep in mind that German cases are really not identical to Croatian cases!)
The DL case is used in thanking, which is useful when you get something. The phrase is:
hvala na¨ + DL thanks for
Croatian za¨ usually corresponds to English for, but not in this phrase. For example, you could say:
Hvala na... Thanks for the...
... čestitci. ...greeting card.
... poruci. ...message.
... poklonu. ...gift.
... pomoći. ...help.
Here we’ve used another feminine noun that doesn’t end in -a: pomoć f help, assistance.
I already explained how in Croatian, words like my are less often used and possession is simply implied, especially with body parts and family members:
Ana pereprati kosu. ‘Ana is washing hair.’ (= her hair)
However, if she’s washing someone else’s hair, a common way – very common in speech – to express it, is to add the person – the one whose hair it is – in the DL case:
Ana pereprati Goranu kosu. ▶ Ana is washing hair ‘to Goran’. (i.e. Goran’s hair)
This is the preferred word order in such sentences – it’s, of course, possible to rearrange words if you want to stress something. This is the same structure as with the verb send or write – Goran will ‘get’ his hair washed, in the same way as he will get a message, letter or gift.
Pay attention that in the sentence above, kosu is in A – it is the object, after all – while Goranu is in DL. These two words are not attached to each other, don’t depend on each other: this is just the most common word order in such sentences.
Croatian has possessive adjectives – I’ve already shown moj my, others will be shown a bit later – but with body parts, using the DL is the preferred way. If you are familiar with German, you’ll notice it uses the same system: the sentence above would translate exactly as Ana wäscht Goran die Haare. Dutch and Romance languages do it in the same way.
In fact, English is famous for using a lot of possessive adjectives, while a great majority of European languages use them much less often. In most languages, possession of body parts and many other things is simply implied – it’s expressed only if something belongs to someone else, often by dative or something equivalent.
If your brain is spinning now failing to comprehend how DL can mean possession of a body part, here’s another way to look at the sentence above: Ana is washing the hair, and doing it to Goran.
The accusative case of neuter nouns is equal to their default, nominative form. It’s not so for the DL case, and it becomes important that some neuter nouns have specific case-base as well, not shortened (like masculine ones) but lengthened:
|
d | pile (pilet-) chicken |
Pay attention how ije in dijete changes to je in its case-base (such alternations are a cause of misspellings for many native speakers).
The next two verbs use DL and have a obligatory se² always with them (as explained already, it must be the second word, if possible):
diviti se² marvel, admire
smijati (smije) se² laugh
®
For example:
Goran se divi Ivanu. Goran marvels at Ivan.
Ana se smijesmijati se Goranu. Ana is laughing at Goran.
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 ideići Ivanu. Ana is going to Ivan. (where he is) ®
Trčimtrčati mami. 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 sutra ideići zubaru. Ivan is going to the dentist tomorrow. ®
These nouns are two more examples of the standard stress moving (zubar → zubaru) indicated by my markings.
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 danas ideići kući. Ana is going home today.
Warning. This applies only to DL of this noun, when used without any prepositions. With the preposition u¨, this noun has the expected meanings:
Ana ideići u kuću. Ana is going to the house. (u¨ + A)
Ana je u kući. Ana is in the house. (u¨ + DL)
The same meaning special 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 example, this adjective is often accompanied by a noun in DL (this again corresponds to English to):
sličan (sličn-) similar
For example:
Višnja je slična trešnji. Sour cherry is similar to cherry.
In the previous sentence, trešnja cherry was put in DL.
This is also used to express look like:
Ona je slična Ani. She looks like Ana.
________
® In the “Ekavian” pronunciation, which completely dominates in Serbia, the verb smijati (smije) se² has the unexpected form smejati (smeje) se².
The use of DL of persons to express destinations seems to be much less common in Serbia, especially in speech. Another expression, which will be explained in the next chapters, is used instead.
What would be the difference in meaning between saying ide doma and ide kući?
ReplyDeleteNone. Ide doma is just more common in Zagreb and surrounding areas. :)
DeleteHi again! In terms of emphasis, what's the difference between:
ReplyDelete"Ivan piše poruku Ani" and "Ivan piše Ani poruku"?
Are any other word orders possible in normal speech (I suppose poetry allows for some creative license)?
Both are almost the same, there's not much emphasis. All other permutations (total: 4! = 24) are used only in poetry, emphasis etc.
DeleteSo, if I wanted to emphasize "Ani", "Ivan" and "poruku"... would I emphasize with a certain word order? Or would it be more with the way I pronounce the words (as in English)?
DeleteBoth. What is in an unusual position and/or louder is emphasized. I introduce emphasis gradually, as there are stressed pronouns etc. Lp
DeleteIn the above examples 'Goran se divi Ivanu' and 'Ana se smije Goranu se', you translated with the preposition ''to'. This is incorrect. In English you would say "marvels at" and "smiles at".
ReplyDeleteNo, I translated them in the same line with at. Later you have literal translations, in quotes, so that you can understand the structure. If this is confusing, I'd add 'literally'. I use literal translations in many places but they are all in quotes.
DeleteIs it more clear now?
DeleteOk. Yes. I see it now. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteYou don't need to be sorry, if something is confusing I better fix it...
DeleteI'm confused about this:
ReplyDelete---
The DL case is also involved with possession, especially with body parts and related people (e.g. family or friends). I already explained how in Croatian, words like my are less often used and possession is implied:
Ana pere kosu. ‘Ana is washing hair.’ (= her hair)
---
You write DL is used, but kosu is Akkusativ. DL would be kosi? So I understand why Akkusativ is used, I'm german... but your description doesn't match?
Thank you for your great blog!
Yes, in Ana pere kosu there is only N and A. Possession is NOT expressed, it's IMPLIED. But if you needed to express possession, you would do it with the DL, like in German (I don't know really German, so I don't know if this is the right expression):
DeleteAna wäscht MIR die Haare
I assume what I wrote is confusing. I have rephrased it, is it more clear now? I've changed exactly the paragraph you quoted...
DeleteWhat would be the declension of Knjiga in dative and locative, would it be the same? when looking into to these two cases I found an article on assibilation which, as an example, causes Knjiga to be declined as Knjizi rather than Knjigi when in the dative case but it didn't mention whether this would apply to Knjiga in the locative.
ReplyDeleteYes, the forms are always the same. The DL would be knjizi. It's a good example for the chapter #15, I'll add it there.
DeleteOf course the article doesn't say anything about the L since it's assumed D=L is a common knowledge.
You won't find many uses of the D case for non-living things, you can't "help the book". Traditionally, the D case is mostly about people/animals. However, you can "belong to a family", and so on. lp
Just a heads up on the grammar of "mum". We only use capital letters, when it signifies their name. For example, we don't use a capital letter when saying, "I'm running to my mum." I don't know the correct grammatical name for this situation, but you are not calling her Mum, but that saying that she is your mother. If you said, "I'm running to Mum?" it would require a capital letter, as you are substituting her name for Mum. Simply taking out the possessive makes it a name.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest, I'm terrible with grammar, but I believe that's the correct way we use it...
Also, in the last chapter I noticed another couple of small errors. Your paragraph on weather conditions which require the preposition "na". You refer to each translation as "in cold", "in rain", "in snow", "in sun" and "in (fresh) air". For these types of sentences we also include the preposition "the" to the sentence. E.g. "in the cold", "in the rain". It seems we love prepositions much more than you guys... Haha
Besides this everything has been perfect and very informative. Thanks again.
Yes, this my mum / Mum is a quirk of English spelling. I'll fix it.
DeleteAs for "in the rain", I'm sure I've seen "in rain" as well, but I'll fix it. These words are called articles and most languages in the world actually don't have them, Slavic languages included (except for Macedonian and Bulgarian). lp
Changed.
DeleteObviously, neither of these are big issues, but I thought I should tell you anyway.
DeleteYes, it seems are love capital letters can be quite misleading. It's also the case for the next chapter, which we would actually use a capital letter for both words in "Adriatic Sea". In Croatian, I believe you only capitalise "Adriatic", but we consider both nouns as names, which constitutes capitalising both.
Ah, thank you. It's outstanding to see how little I know of my own language's grammar. I must never have paid close enough attention in school...
I've tried to think of examples where this "in rain" can be used in a sentence, but I can't think of any. It just uses the same formula as "in the sky" or "in the clouds. Obviously, if you were to switch "cold" from a noun into an adjective like in the EC: 17 title, "In Cold Scotland", that's one way it will be grammatically correct.
Much appreciated.
I'll fix the next chapter too. Of course, English is not my native language and I visited England only once in my life, for a couple of days. lp
DeleteYour English is amazing and probably better than my own in many areas. Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteI dont understand "Goran trči u sobu" Goran is running to the room. after "trči u" should be a DL so it should be sobi not sobu
ReplyDeleteNo, this is a question in exercises to teach you the difference between destinations and locations:
DeleteGoran trči u sobi = Goran is in the room, and running around, the room is where the whole thing happens (location) = use DATIVE/LOCATIVE
Goran trči u sobu = Goran is somewhere else, and running to the room. This is NOT where he is, but his destination = use ACCUSATIVE
So, English "to" usually implies the right preposition + ACCUSATIVE. You'll see later there are more prepositions like that...
Is it clearer now?
lp
Thank you for your reply. but if you say so We’re going home today = we are not in the "home" yet we are going to it, but it is still Danas idemo kuci. not Danas idemo kucu.
Deletepls help me to go through
thank you
As I wrote:
DeleteAs a very special use, the DL of the noun kuća house can be used as destination...
This is bare DL used as a destination. You can say:
Idem u kuću. = regular use, u + A (I'm going to the house)
Ja sam u kući. = regular use, u + DL (I'm in the house)
But just kući, no prepositions, has a SPECIAL MEANING home, not ordinary house:
Idem kući = SPECIAL USE!!! = I'm going home.
This works ONLY for the noun kuća, which normally means house.
I've added a brief explanation to this chapter, in a blue box, is it clearer now?
DeleteIn the exercise, why is it “Pišem poruku tati” and not “Pišem poruku tatu”? Tata is a masculine noun, so shouldn’t the ending be -u.
ReplyDeleteAlso, thank you for a wonderful blog. I have learned so much here.
Because the rule is:
DeleteIf a noun ends in -a (and such nouns are MOSTLY feminine) you change it to -u in A, to -i in DL.
Tata ends in -a. It is masculine but the rules for endings still hold.
Nouns in -a are an exception. They all get the same endings regardless of gender. For other nouns, gender is important for endings, but not for nouns in -a
DeleteInstead of "Ana pere Goranu kosu" ... could you also say "Ana pere kosu Gorana?"
ReplyDeleteOnly in theory. In practice, nobody will say or wrote such a sentence.
DeleteIn the chapter #19 I introduce possessive adjectives (e.g. Goranov) but they are less used than DL in such situation. A possessive can be used with a car. A body part as an object Rarely.
Sorry, some letters were dropped. When a person is directly affected - because a body part is the object - who is affected, i.e. whose body part it is - is expressed in DL.
DeleteIf thr hair is cut and then washed, other constructions are often used.