In traditional grammars, ‘pronouns’ were words that stand instead of nouns. However, in early Latin grammars, ‘nouns’ included adjectives too. Since most grammarians are incredibly conservative, most grammars of other Europeaan languages followed that tradition.
This meant the word his, standing for e.g. John’s, was a ‘pronoun’, but the word here, standing for e.g. in my room wasn’t a ‘pronoun’, but an ‘adverb’.
Since the 19th century, first in Latin grammars, some grammarians have recognized there is a better way to describe such words, and started grouping many other words with pronouns. This summary follows such an approach.
Personal pronouns
Personal pronouns are a special group of words that come in two forms: stressed (or long) and unstressed (or short):
| stressed | unstressed | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| person | N | A | G | DL | I | A | G | DL | ||
| 1 sg | ja | mene | mene | meni | mnom | me² | me² | mi² | ||
| 2 sg | ti | tebe | tebe | tebi | tobom | te² | te² | ti² | ||
| 3 sg m | on | njega | njega | njemu | njim | ga² | ga² | mu² | ||
| 3 sg n | ono | |||||||||
| 3 sg f | ona | nju | nje | njoj | njom | je² / ju² | je² | joj² | ||
| self | — | sebe | sebe | sebi | sobom | se² | se² | si² | ||
| 1 pl | mi | nas | nas | nama | nas² | nas² | nam² | |||
| 2 pl | vi | vas | vas | vama | vas² | vas² | vam² | |||
| 3 pl m | oni | njih | njih | njima | ih² | ih² | im² | |||
| 3 pl n | ona | |||||||||
| 3 pl f | one | |||||||||
For almost all pronouns, G and A have the same form.
The choice of ju² vs je² (3rd pers. fem. A), depends on the region in speech. In some regions, ju² is almost always used.
In standard Croatian, ju² is used only if the preceding word ends in -je, or the next word is the 3rd person verb je² e.g. nije ju vidio he didn’t see her. Otherwise, standard Croatian requires using je². (Some manuals don’t agree in details, and this rule is disputed.)
These rules, however, are often not followed in writing, where both forms are often used more freely.
Unstressed pronouns should be placed in the second position in a clause, as marked with ² (for more information, check A5 Word Order). Stressed pronouns are used when:
- we want to specially emphasize something
- when using a preposition before a pronoun
- when using i either before or after the pronoun
- when using a to contrast two clauses
- in short responses
- when there’s no required short pronoun in the desired case
This applies to nominative forms too: they are used only when stressed pronouns should be used, otherwise, they are omitted.
Sometimes you’ll see just nj instead of njega; it’s used only after prepositions.
Possessive pronouns
Possessive pronouns are basically adjectives, but some of them have special forms:
| pers. | singular | plural |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | moj my | naš our |
| 2 | tvoj your | vaš your |
| 3 m, n | njegov his, its | njihov their |
| 3 f | njen / njezin her | |
| refl. | svoj | — |
The pronoun svoj is possessive reflexive, used when something belongs to the subject. In real life, the 1st person moj is often used instead, especially for emphasis.
Words moj, tvoj and svoj have additionally special, shorter forms in masculine and neuter genders in singular:
| gender | N | A | G | DL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc. anim. | moj | = G | mojeg(a) mog(a) |
mojem(u) mom(e) |
| masc. inan. | = N | |||
| neuter | moje | = N |
The feminine forms are regular.
Forms for tvoj follow the same pattern (svoj has exactly the same forms, but with sv- instead of tv-):
| gender | N | A | G | DL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc. anim. | tvoj | = G | tvojeg(a) tvog(a) |
tvojem(u) tvom(e) |
| masc. inan. | = N | |||
| neuter | tvoje | = N |
General pronouns
Correlatives or general pro-words are best described in a big table. I will follow this system: columns show what is refered to (person, place, time...) while rows show the kind of reference (e.g. some-one, any-one, no-one etc.).
Many of these words are simply derived from question-words. For example, from kad(a) when, by adding ni-, we get nikad(a) never, but some words are irregularly derived and break the symmetry, and some forms simply don’t exist.
Here are some general remarks about rows:
The rows marked with else are words used in constructions like someone else, elsewhere etc. Croatian doesn’t have a generic word like else in English: each column has its else word which can be used on its own or with the corresponding negative, some- or any- word. For example, the else-place works like this:
|
drugdje elsewhere negdje drugdje lit. ‘somewhere elsewhere’ = somewhere else nigdje drugdje lit. ‘nowhere elsewhere’ = nowhere else |
Words in the negative row require the verb to be negated as well.
Each negative word starts with ni-. Remove that n- and you’ll get the any-. These words aren’t listed separately, because they are always regular. They are not used in negative sentences (e.g. I didn’t find anything); their main role is to emphasize some- forms, but overall they are seldom used:
Imaš li nešto drugo? Do you have something else?
Imaš li išta drugo? Do you have anything else? (emphasis)
While any- words always follow a very simple pattern, many other forms, unfortunately, don’t. In particular, negative forms are often irregular and simply have to be remembered.
Another type not listed in the tables are words starting with po-, which is added to the some- form. They mean here and there, now and then; e.g. ponekad (= po + nekad) means sometimes.
Although all these words are best described in a big table, that table is really big, so I’ve divided correlatives into several groups and have a number of smaller tables.
General pro-nouns
The first group includes words that have cases and have a somewhat irregular change; all words derived from tko (k-) and što (č-) have singular only and don’t change according to gender:
| person (who, -one) |
thing (what, -thing) |
|
|---|---|---|
| question | tko (k-) | što (č-) |
| negative | nitko (nik-) | ništa (nič-) |
| some- | netko (nek-) | nešto (neč-) |
| every- | svatko (svak-) | svašta (svač-) * sve |
| else | drugi | |
The else-words in this group are forms of the adjective drugi; neuter forms are used for things, while masculine and feminine forms are used for people.
The word svašta (svač-) has a bit shifted meaning: it means things of all kinds, various things, not everything. Strictly everything is expressed with neuter forms of the adjective/pronoun sve.
In more colloquial speech, you’ll hear niš instead of ništa.
The change of question words is like this (all derived words change the same):
| N | A | G | DL | I | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| who | tko | kog(a) | kog(a) | kom(u) | kim(e) |
| what | što | što | čeg(a) | čem(u) | čim(e) |
The word for what varies across dialects, and has been used to broadly classify dialects into three groups: one using ča or a similar word (such dialects are called ‘Čakavian’), another using kaj or a similar word (such dialects are called ‘Kajkavian’), and the third one, using što or a similar word (such dialects are called ‘Štokavian’).
In speech, in many regions, many use šta instead of što, and even more use ko instead of tko.
Pro-adverbs of space and time
We have a big group related to location and motion (destination, origin and path):
| place | destination | origin | path | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| question | gdje | kamo | odakle otkud(a) |
kuda |
| negative | nigdje | nikamo | niotkud(a) | nikud(a) |
| some- | negdje | nekamo | odnekud(a) odnekle |
nekud(a) |
| every- | svuda svagdje |
svakamo | odsvakud(a) | svakud(a) svuda |
| else | drugdje | drugamo | od drugdje | — |
| here | ovdje / tu |
ovamo | odavde * | ovud(a) * |
| there | tu | tamo | otud(a) | tud(a) |
| there (far) | ondje tamo |
onamo | odonuda | onud(a) |
Sadly, dictionaries don’t agree on the stress of ovud(a) and odavde; so I’ve marked both positions I’ve found.
Colloqually, use of these words varies a lot; many use a simplified form of gdje where, mostly di. Futhermore, words for path are less often used, and some use words for location to express a destination (e.g. gdje ideš? and not kamo ideš?).
Besides svagdje everywhere, a but different word svugdje is also used; some consider it non-standard. The word svuda, sometimes shortened to svud, originally meant only the path, but its use for locations too is acknowledged by the standard.
However, use of tu and tamo (a word originally used for destinations only) instead of ovdje and ondje is considered colloquial, but it’s very common.
Colloquially in regions around Zagreb, you’ll hear simo instead of ovamo; in some other regions, youll often hear shortened amo.
We have a similar triplet related to time, including just (a point in) time, and the start and end of some period; these words don’t change as well:
| time | start | end | |
|---|---|---|---|
| question | kad(a) | otkad(a) | dokad(a) dokle |
| negative | nikad(a) | — | — |
| some- | nekad(a) * | — | — |
| every- | uv |
— | — |
| now | sad(a) | odsad(a) | dosad(a) |
| then | tad(a) | otad(a) | dotad(a) |
| then (far) | onda | odonda * | donda |
The word nekad(a) today mostly means a long ago; if you want to express precisely sometimes, use ponekad.
Unfortunately, dictionaries don’t agree on the stress of odonda; so I’ve marked both positions I’ve found.
Other pro-adjectives and pro-adverbs
In the next group, all words change as adjectives, but koji has a special change, and pronouns of that group show no regularity:
| selection (which) |
ownership (whose) |
|
|---|---|---|
| question | koji | čiji |
| negative | nijedan (nijedn-) | ničiji |
| some- | neki | nečiji |
| every- | svaki | svačiji |
| else | drugi | — |
| this | ovaj (ov-) | — |
| that | taj (t-) | — |
| that (far) | onaj (on-) | — |
The adjective pronoun koji which changes like this (feminine and all plural forms are regular, so not shown here):
| gender | N | A | G | DL | I |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc. anim. | koji | = G | kojeg(a) kog(a) |
kojem(u) kom(e) |
kojim(e) |
| masc. inan. | = N | ||||
| neuter | koje | = N |
For examples of use of koji which, check 59 Whose, What Thing and What Like.
The last three rows are demonstratives, which are basically adjectives; neuter forms are used for things, while masculine and feminine forms are used for people; for examples, check 18 This and That.
These two also change like adjectives:
| quality, type | size | |
|---|---|---|
| question | kakav (kakv-) | kolik |
| negative | nikakav (nikakv-) | — |
| some- | nekakav (nekakv-) | — |
| every- | svakakav (svakakv-) | — |
| else | drugačiji | — |
| this | ovakav (ovakv-) | ovolik |
| that | takav (takv-) | tolik |
| that (far) | onakav (onakv-) | onolik |
These words don’t change at all:
| manner | quantity | |
|---|---|---|
| question | kako | koliko |
| negative | nikako | nimalo |
| some- | nekako | malo / nešto |
| every- | svakako | — |
| else | drugačije | — |
| this | ovako | ovoliko * |
| that | tako | toliko * |
| that (far) | onako | onoliko * |
The words related to quantity are used as any other quantity adverbs, i.e. require G-pl for countable nouns, and G for uncountable ones.
The word nekoliko historically belonged to this group, but it today means only several, and it’s used with countable nouns only.
Unfortunately, dictionaries don’t agree on stress of ovoliko and similar words, so I’ve marked both places of stress found in dictionaries...
Compound general pro-words
There are several combinations of words that form pro-words; they are formed from the question words and another word:
| structure | example | meaning |
|---|---|---|
| bilo + question | bilo što | anything |
| question + god | što god | anything (whatever) |
| ma + question | ma što | anything (whatever) (bookish, rarer) |
These combinations means basically the same, the first (bilo što) is the most common. They can be formed from most question-words above (bilo kako, bilo gdje, bilo kamo, bilo čiji...) except for kolik and koliko.
Besides these, there is a version where god is merged (e.g. štogod, gdjegod etc.). Standard Croatian insist they mean something, somewhere etc, but it’s questionable how many people use these words in such meanings.
Adjective/pronoun sve and other ‘pronouns’
The adjective sav (sv-) whole, all has a special change (feminine and all plural forms are again regular, so not shown here):
| gender | N | A | G | DL | I |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| masc. anim. | sav | = G | svega | svemu | svim(e) |
| masc. inan. | = N | ||||
| neuter | sve | = N |
On its own, the adjective is used as a pronoun:
- masculine plural svi is used as everyone for all-male and mixed groups
- feminine plural sve is used as everyone for all-female groups
- neuter singular sve is used as everything for things, materials, etc.
When used as an adjective, it often gets regular endings (neuter N svo, G svog(a)...) but it’s not accepted as standard.
For examples of use and more details, check 48 Everybody, Each and Everything Else.
Some other adjectives can be used as pronouns, such as:
|
ostali rest jedin the only one |
Again, neuter singular is used for things, while masculine and feminine plural are used for people (and other animals).
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