39 Would, Could: Conditionals

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In Croatian, there is a special verb construction called conditional ®. It represents desires or things that might happen. For instance, phrases I would... (or you could) are often represented by conditionals in Croatian.

Conditional is a compound form: it’s constructed from the past form, and a special conditional verb, having with the following forms:

person	sing.	plur.
1st	bih²	bismo²
2nd	bi²	biste²
3rd		bi²

In everyday speech of many people, just bi² is used in all persons and numbers, but it’s not standard ®. Just bi² is also quite frequent in casual writing – these are results by Google™ on the .hr domain:

"mi bismo"	46800
"mi bi"	71000

Let’s compare the following sentences in present:

Jedemjesti. I am eating.

Mogumoći
pres-1 jesti. I can eat. ®

With ones in conditional (as indicated by the superscript ², the conditional verb wants to be at the second position):

Jeojesti
past-m bih. I would (like to) eat. {m}

Moglamoći
past-f bih jesti. I could eat. {f} ®

The English I could eat is ambiguous: it could mean that you had the ability in the past, or that you’re thinking about it right now (conditional). Croatian does not have such an ambiguity:

Moglamoći
past-f bih jesti. {f} (now, conditional)

Moglamoći
past-f sam jesti. {f} (past)

Croatian mogla bih actually corresponds to English I would be able to.

People use conditionals a lot when trying to be polite or soften expressions, but it could be ironic as well:

Hoćuhtjeti
pres-1 jesti. I want to eat. (not polite)

Htio bih jesti. {m} (much more polite)

Another example:

Želim kupiti majicu. I want to buy a T-shirt. (not polite)

Želio bih kupiti majicu. {m} (much more polite)

Kupio bih majicu. {m} (also polite)

Actually, most often desires are expressed using conditionals (these are examples for the masc. gender in 1st person – I hope you’re able to work out others):

Volio bih...   Htio bih... Želio bih...

I’d like... {m}

As you see, the verb voljeti (voli,...) love shifts its meaning in conditional a bit – there’s no real difference in meaning of the three verbs above in conditional. (I’ll explain various ways to use the verb voljeti (voli,...) love in conditional in 56 Desires and Demands.)

When the verb trebati need is put into conditional and used with another verb in infinitive, it’s just a bit softened, and usually means should:

Trebala bih spavati. I should sleep. {f} ®

Trebala bi spavati. You should sleep. {to f} (or She should...)

It’s possible to soften any verb with conditional:

Morao bih jesti. I’d have to eat. {m}

Sometimes, the conditional verb is used just like a regular verb, for every desire, not just with verbs (it’s quite informal, children mostly talk like that):

Ja bih čokoladu. (colloq.) ‘I’d a chocolate.’ = I’d like a chocolate.

What if we have more than one second-position word? Then the conditional verb is placed before everything else that also requires the second place (that is, words like me², se², etc.):

Ivan bi me1 A trebao zvati. Ivan should call me.

Goran bi se igrao. Ivan would like to play.

If you want to express negative conditional, just place a ne¨ in front of the conditional verb. These two words must then stay together and are usually found right before the past form:

Ne bih moglamoći
past-f jesti. I couldn’t eat. {f}

Ivan me1 A ne bi trebao zvati. Ivan shouldn’t call me.

Goran se ne bi igrao. Ivan wouldn’t like to play.

The negation with the conditional verb behaves like one word that can be placed anywhere, despite being spelled as two words. Since the conditional verb is short (one syllable) the stress shifts to ne¨ even in the ‘western’ stress scheme (as indicated by the underlines above). As a result, you’ll sometimes see (non-standard) spellings nebi and like.

To make questions in conditional, just use the normal methods. When the conditional verb is used in questions, it can be placed at the first position.

Conditional is frequently used in short negative responses, when someone is asked if he or she wants to do something:

Hoćešhtjeti
pres-2 u kino? Do you want to go to the cinema? ®

— Ne bih, hvala. I wouldn’t, thanks.

There’s a construction in Croatian that corresponds to the English preference construction:

cond + radije ... nego ... would rather ... than ...

Both parts – after radije and nego are in conditional, but the conditional verb is not repeated in the second part. The word radije can be shuffled around a bit, but nego cannot:

Radije bih čitao knjigu nego gledao televiziju. I’d rather read a book than watch TV. {m}

Pay attention how the verb after nego is also in past forms: both parts are in conditional, just the second bih is left out.

In both Croatian and English, the verb in the second part is left out if it’s repeated, however, you have to pay attention to use the right case in Croatian:

Radije bih pio čaj nego kavu. I’d rather drink tea than coffee. {m} ®

You can even leave the verb completely if you would like to get something:

Radije bih čaj nego kavu.

This is also often used in short responses:

Želiš li kavu? Do you want coffee?

— Radije bih čaj. I’d prefer tea.

Conditionals are also used in special, conditional sentences, corresponding to English "if I were... I would". They are described in 70 If I Were: Conditional Sentences.

(There’s another form, so-called past conditional, but it’s very rare in everyday communication. It will be covered in 99 Aorist Tense and Other Marginal Features.)

________

® In Serbian grammars, the conditional is often called potential. The forms are the same.

In Istria, the Rijeka area and on most islands, you’ll likely hear – and sometimes see – the conditional verb with regular endings in speech (bim, biš, bi...) except in 3-pl; this is a very, very old feature. The 1st pers. singular is usually actually bin, which is characterictic for all 1st pers. singular endings in coastal areas.

Instead of infinitives, in Serbia, especially in speech, da + present prevails, so examples would usually look like:

Mogumoći
pres-1 da jedemjesti. I can eat.

Moglamoći
past-f bih da jedemjesti. I could eat. {f}

Standard Serbian insists that the verb trebati need/should must be used impersonally with another verb, so the standard option in Serbia is only:

Trebalo bi da spavam. lit. ‘It’s needed that I sleep.’ = I should sleep.

However, in real speech there’s much more freedom.

Instead of kino and kava, the words bioskop and kafa are used in Serbia and most of Bosnia for cinema and coffee.

↓ Examples (click to show)

Gabi Novak is a Croatian pop (and jazz) singer. (Since her stage name doesn’t end in -a, it’s the same in all cases; occasionally, her name was spelled as Gaby.)

This song of hers, Otok Island, is from 1980’s. Like many other songs she has performed, it was written and composed by her long time collaborator (and her third husband) Arsen Dedić; it actually comes from their joint album. It starts with:

Ti si otok, sam i dalek	You’re an island, alone and distant
okružen morem	Surrounded by the sea
nisi bio za plićake	For shallow waters
ni za kopno stvoren	Or for the mainland you weren’t made {to m}

The second line contains the passive adjective okružen surrounded, derived from the perf. verb okružiti («) surround, encircle; this derivation is regular: it will be covered 62 Cake is Eaten: Passive Adjectives. It’s followed by what it’s surrounded with: more sea in the instrumental case, which is usual for this verb: this is the medium it’s surrounded with.

The last line has one more passive adjective: stvoren created, made, which is put at the end (to make the lines rhyme). The line starts with ni, which roughly corresponds to neither. Note how the last two lines are just an expansion of nisi bio stvoren you weren’t made {to m}.

The chorus contains conditionals:

Ja bih moglamoći past-f	I could {f}
željna slobode	eager for freedom {f}
živjeti tamo	Live there
bez kruha i vode	without bread and water
ja bih moglamoći past-f	I could {f}
ljubavi željna	eager for love {f}
živjeti tamo	Live there
gladna i žedna	hungry and thirsty {f}

These lines basically contain ja bih mogla živjeti tamo I could live there {f} with an inserted part how. The pronoun ja is, of course, optional here and used likely for contrast with ti in the 1st verse.

The inserted parts contain the adjective željan (željn-) eager, which is used with a noun in G, expressing what you’re eager for. In the third line, the noun in G (ljubav f love) is placed before the noun, which is uncommon, but still grammatical. (This adjective is not too common in speech; lyrics by Arsen Dedić was often full of less common words and constructions.)

The verses repeat with some variation:

Ti si otok	You’re an island
pored tebe naše lađe plove	Beside you our boats sail
ti si mjesto za sanjare	You’re a place for dreamers
i za pustolove	And for adventurers
(Arsen Dedić)

Here we have preposition pored + G besides, which is used with a stressed pronoun in G, as required for pronouns with prepositions.

You can listen to the song on YouTube™.

There’s some ‘western’ stress in this song, possibly because Gabi Novak was raised on the island of Hvar and in Zagreb, and both places traditionally use non-standard stress.

She had a rough start: her mother was a German who met a Croatian on the island of Hvar while on holidays – on the eve of the World War II; Gabrijela, nicknamed Gabi, was born in Berlin, but the family moved to Zagreb when the war started, away from Germany. Her grandparents in Germany soon perished in the war. Meanwhile, Gabi was sent to her grandparents on Hvar. When her father once came from the mainland to visit his 8-year old daughter, he was taken to another island by local resistance fighters, killed and burried at an unknown location; she never got an explanation. After the war, Gabi’s mother, unable to find any job, could only rent a small room in Zagreb, where she lived with her daughter, raising her in poverty. Gabi went to an art school, but continuing to Zagreb Academy of Fine Arts was out of the question, she had to find a job (having a German mom in years right after the war didn’t help either).

However, her talent was soon discovered. (Her mother also found a good job, and the company she worked with provided an apartment for them.) Gabi started performing and recording in 1950’s, became popular, and continued for the next six decades. Most songs she performed were easy-listening, mostly forgotten since. Some weren’t.

↓ Exercise (click to show)

Complete the following sentences:

Show a pop-up Croatian keyboard

knjigu. I’d read a book. (I = male)

Goran . Goran would like to play.

radio. I’d listen to the radio. (I = female)

film. She would watch a movie.

In the following sentences, use perfective verbs:

pizzu. We’d eat pizza. (we = an all-female group)

pivo. I’d drink a cold beer. (I = male)

knjigu. I’d return the book. (I = female)

to. I’d try (to do) that. (I = male)

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