How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

guenterpolo
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How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

Postby guenterpolo » 2012-12-30, 23:22

Bok moji prijatelji !

I am just beginning to learn Croatian and I am having trouble understanding the conjugation of verbs. Could someone please tell me the conjugations for I; you; he,she,she; we; you(plural); they?
If you could just do a couple different verbs and the conjugations I would be grateful. If you could also explain the differences between -ati; eti; etc... that would be great! Hvala!
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Corrections are welcome!

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Lalaith en Noldor
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Re: How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

Postby Lalaith en Noldor » 2013-01-03, 16:12

Uuhh.

First of all, welcome! It's always nice to see someone learning Croatian :)

Basically, you have 2 main types of verbs: the one that ends in -ti and the other that ends in -ći. The first category (-ti) can be divided into subcategories like verbs ending in -ati, -(j)eti, -iti, -uti, -ovati, etc.; the second category stays as it is and has no subdivisions. The verbs that end in -ati (like hodati [to walk]) will usually be conjugated like this:

1. ja hodam
2. ti hod
3. on/ona/ono hoda

1. mi hodamo
2. vi hodate
3. oni/one/ona hodaju

with a few exceptions (which will be explained in the proper "paragraph").

Next, we have those that end in -iti (eg. raditi [to work]) and -(j)eti (eg. vidjeti [to see]):

1. ja radim/vidim
2. ti rad/vid
3. on/ona/ono radi/vidi

1. mi radimo/vidimo
2. vi radite/vidite
3. oni/one/ona rade/vide

So far no exceptions have crossed my mind, so my guess is that they are all regular, ie. take these endings. But, the verbs that end in -čati, -žati and sometimes -jati (eg. trčati [to run], držati [to hold], stajati [to stand]) are conjugated like this (stajati -> stojim is a bit irregular, the others are regular. I think you'll just have to learn this by heart.).


The verbs that end in -uti (eg. krenuti [to start moving])

1. ja krenem
2. ti kren
3. on/ona/ono krene

1. mi krenemo
2. vi krenete
3. oni/one/ona krenu

Also, some verbs that end in -sati, -zati, -kati (probably some more) take these endings, but with a slight change in the stem in every person: pisati [to write] -> pišem, rezati [to cut] -> režem, skakati [to jump] -> skačem.

At the end, the ones that end in -ovati, -ivati belong to the last group (-em, -eš, -e,...), but they also undergo a change in the stem in every person: stanovati [to reside] stanujem, pokazivati [to show] -> pokazujem. Some (not all!) verbs that end in -avati (eg. davati [to give] -> dajem, but pokušavati [to try] -> pokušavam) discard the whole ending, take a -j and then conjugate as krenuti.


As for -ći verbs, they, I dare say, always have some changes in the stem. However, after the changes, I think that each of them belongs to the last group. (eg. ići [to go])

1. ja idem
2. ti ideš
3. on/ona/ono ide

1. mi idemo
2. vi idete
3. oni/one/ona idu


To sum up, the first person singular has the answer to all your questions :) Other persons undergo the same changes in the stem (if there are any) as the 1.sg. I hope this helped a bit (and didn't scare you off :P)!
(hr) - native, (en) - proficient, (hu) - advanced, (pl)- dabbling in, (de) - love-hate relationship

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johnklepac
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Re: How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

Postby johnklepac » 2013-02-04, 23:16

Easier than Czech verbs, I'll tell you what. :)

Noreviking

Re: How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

Postby Noreviking » 2013-04-16, 19:48

I suddenly felt like I want to learn Croatian again when I browsed this and some other threads in this forum!
Thank you for this good explanation of how to conjugate the Croatian verbs. :D

Libby
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Re: How to conjugate Croatian Verbs?

Postby Libby » 2016-09-16, 12:04

Thanks very much, that is a great help!
I have been looking for a list/table of irregular Croatian verbs on-line and can't find anything. Do you know of any?


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