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 | me | me | mi | ||
| 2 sg | ti | tebe | tebe | tebi | tobom | te | te | ti | ||
| 3 sg m | on | njega | njega | njemu | njim | ga | ga | mu | ||
| 3 sg n | ono | |||||||||
| 3 sg f | ona | nju | nje | njoj | njom | je / ju | je | joj | ||
| self | — | sebe | sebe | sebi | sobom | se | se | si | ||
| 1 pl | mi | nas | nas | nama | nama | nas | nas | nam | ||
| 2 pl | vi | vas | vas | vama | vama | vas | vas | vam | ||
| 3 pl m | oni | njih | njih | njima | njima | ih | ih | im | ||
| 3 pl n | ona | |||||||||
| 3 pl f | one | |||||||||
For almost all pronouns, G and A have the same form.
Unstressed pronouns should be placed in the second position in a clause (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
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 | — |
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 |
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 any- are words used only in questions and some phrases, they are not used to express I didn’t find anything.
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.
Although 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 |
| any- | itko (ik-) | išta (ič-) |
| 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.
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) |
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) | nekud(a) |
| every- | svugdje | svakamo | odsvakud(a) | svakud(a) |
| any- | igdje | ikamo | — | ikud(a) |
| else | drugdje | drugamo | od drugdje | — |
| here | ovdje / tu |
ovamo | odavde | ovud(a) |
| there | tu | tamo | otuda | tud(a) |
| there (far) | ondje / tamo |
onamo | odonuda | onud(a) |
Unfortunately, some forms break the symmetry. Instead of ondje, the form tamo, which was originally used for destionations, is usually used in speech. 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?.
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) |
| negative | nikad(a) | — | — |
| some- | nekad(a) | — | — |
| every- | uv |
— | — |
| any- | ikad(a) | — | — |
| now | sad(a) | odsad(a) | dosad(a) |
| then | tad(a) | otad(a) | dotad(a) |
| then (far) | onda | odonda | donda |
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 |
| any- | ijedan (ijedn-) | ičiji |
| 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| neuter | koje | = N | kojeg(a) kog(a) |
kojem(u) kom(e) |
kojim(e) |
| masc. inan. | koji | = N | |||
| masc. anim. | = G |
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-) | — |
| any- | ikakav (ikakv-) | — |
| 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 |
| every- | svakako | — |
| any- | ikako | — |
| 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.
Compound general pro-words
...
Adjective/pronoun sve
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