Croatian vocabulary: VERB-BUILDING #001

GOVORITI and related verbs

Following are concise meanings (with illustrative examples) of verbs derived from the verb govoriti.
 
They exist in pairs – one continous form (imperfective), and the other finished/non-continuous form (perfective). For each pair, the continuous form is the first one shown.
 

govoriti (impf.)     to speak, to talk, to say, to tell
 
npr:        Govoriš polako.                                   You speak slowly.
              Oni su govorili na konferenciji .           They spoke at the conference.
              Ona dobro govori engleski.                 She speaks English well.
               Ne govorimo o tome.                          Let's not talk about that.
               Što govoriš?                                       What are you saying?
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razgovarati/razgovoriti           to have a talk, to converse, top carry on a discourse, to chat.
 
npr.        Počeli smo razgovarati.                     We struck up a conversation. We got to talking.
              Razgovaraju o politici.                       The are talking politics
              Nemojmo razgovarati o tome.            Let's not talk about that.
              Razgovarajte sa mnom!                     Talk with me!
 

odgovarati/odgovoriti           to answer, to reply, to respond, to retort, to make a rejoinder
                                               
      [also: to be suitable (for a purpose); to be responsible (for an action); to dissuade someone (from a course of action)]
 
npr.      Odgovori mi!                                        Answer me!
            Odgovorio sam na upitnik.                 I responded to the questionnaire.
            Odgovaraju na pozdrave.                   They are answering/responding to the greetings.
            Moramo odgovoriti na silu silom.        We must answer/respond to force with force.
 
 

ogovarati/ogovoriti               to speak behind someone's back, to badmouth, to gossip (about)
 
npr.      Znaš kako ljudi vole ogovarati.             You know how people love to gossip. You know how tongues wag.
            Sinoč ogovorili smo ih.                          Last night we badmouthed them.
 

izgovarati/izgovoriti              to pronounce, to articulate
 
npr:       Oni ne mogu izgovaraju 'Zastražišće'.            They can't pronounce 'Zastražišće'.
             On krivo izgovara slovo 'lj'.                              He mispronounces the letter 'lj'.
 

izgovarati se/izgovoriti se                to use an excuse or a pretext
                                                                             [Followed by instrumental case]
 
npr.      Izgovara se bolešću.                                He/She is pleading sickness.
            Marta nije željela igrati pa se izgovorila bolesnim grlom.     
                                                                              Marta didn't want to play so she excused herself with a sore throat.
 

dogovarati/dogovoriti              to arrange (something), to fix up

npr.      Oni su dogovarili sastanak.                They were arranging a meeting.
            Dogovorit ćemo utakmicu                   We will organise a match.
 

dogovarati se/dogovoriti se             to agree (about something), to settle upon, to make a deal
 
npr.      Dogovorili su se za vrijeme odlaska.              They have agreed upon a time of departure.
            Kao što smo se dogovorili, .....                       As agreed, ..........
            Dakle dogovorili smo se.                                It's settled then.
            Mislio sam da smo se dogovorili.                   I thought that we had an agreement.
 

pregovarati                to negotiate, to parley
 
npr.      Oni pregovaraju o cijeni kuće.            They are negotiating about the price of the house.
            Pregovarili smo na tri dana.                We were negotiating for three days.

progovarati/progovoriti        to begin to speak, to utter a sound, to break the silence
 
npr.      Martin sin jučer je progovorio.            Marta's son spoke (for the first time) yesterday.
 
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prigovarati/prigovoriti           to object, to complain about, to find fault with
 
npr.      Prigovarili smo konobaru da je kava loša.         We complained to the waiter that the coffee was awful.
            Neće ti prestati prigovarati.                                You'll never hear the end of it.

 

ugovarati/ugovoriti               to agree on something (usually by contract), to settle, to contract to ....
 
npr.      Ugovorili su kako slijedi ....                           We have (hereby) agreed as follows ......
            Trebam ugovoriti uvjete s partnerom.             I need to settle upon the conditions with my partner.
 

nagovarati/nagovoriti           to persuade, to encourage somebody to do something
 
npr.      Nagovorila je ići na utakmicu.                        I persuaded her to go to the match.
            Zašto nagovaraš Ivanu dolaziti s nama?       Why do you encourage Ivan to come with us?