004 Prefixes that modify verb meanings

Aha! Learning Croatian: Vocabulary #004

Prefixes that modify the meanings of verbs

​A perfect(ive) storm!

Firstly, for context ....

Modifying the meanings of verbs in English

In English, sometimes different prefixes on verbs convey different meanings of the verbs. For example:
                        ascend = go up
                        descend = go down
                        transcend = go across/over

But compared with the Croatian language, I think that this use of prefixes is not so common. We more often use an adverb (of location) after the basic verb, or another word altogether. For example, apart from “go up”, “go down” and go across” mentioned above, some other examples are:
                        go out  (or exit)
                        go in  (or enter)
                        go away  (or depart)
                        go faster  (or hasten)
                        go slower  (or slow down)
                        go around  (circumnavigate?)
                        go around  (revolve)
                        go back and forth  (oscillate)
                        go back  (return)

You get the idea? We commonly don’t change the word “go”: rather we pack a descriptive adverb with it. Or we use an entirely different verb.

But in Croatian?

Croatians use prefixes
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But if you are learning Croatian (as am I, so slowly) you will quickly come to realise that in the Croatian language prefixes are added to the verb “go” (ići) – sometimes with substitution of the first “i” - to produce a whole range of different verbs, each with particular meaning:
​
                        doći                  to come, to arrive
                        izići                   to go out, to leave
                        mimoići            to pass by, to pass over, to miss
                        naići                 to come across, to encounter
                        otići                  to leave, to depart
                        poći                  to set out, to go forth
                        preći                to go across, to go over
                        pridoći             to intervene, to join in
                        prići                 to come up to, to approach
                        proizići             to follow on, to emerge from
                        proći                to pass through, to pass by
                        razići se           to break up
                        sići                   to descend, to alight
                        ući                    to enter
                        zaobići             to go around, to detour
 
This is probably not a complete list! I have not included alternative meanings of the verbs – some slightly different, and some apparently unrelated!
 

And two notes of caution:

• The differences between these verbs are not related to the finished/continuous (aspect) differences. All of the above verbs are perfective (finished, once off). For every one of them, there is a corresponding imperfective (coninuing) verb: doći and dolaziti; izići and izlaziti; otići and odlaziti; proći and prolaziti; sići and silaziti; and so on ...
• Some prefixes (for example, po- and na-) which change the meanngs of some verbs, are also used to differentiate perfective and imperfective aspects of the same verb:

                        to eat: jesti (impf.), pojesti (pf.)
                        to make a mistake: griješiti (impf.), pogriješiti (pf.)
                        to make angry: ljutiti (impf.), naljutiti (pf.)
 
​

So, we learners are faced with a labyrinth of verbs, all looking somewhat similar, but with different, and specific, meanings. It's a jungle in which it is easy to get lost!
​
And it can even be galling when you realise that to a Croatian, poći and proći are as different as are think and jump to us!
 

Meanings of the prefixes
Things are not entirely random. When a given prefix is used with different verbs, it usually conveys a similar change of meaning. Not always exactly the same, of course: By definition, every rule in Croatian has many exceptions!
Here are simplified meanings of some of the most common prefixes:
                        do-       to, toward
                        iz-        out of, from
                        mimo-  passing
                        na-       on, onto
                       nad-     above, over
                        o-         around
                        ob-       around
                        od-       away from
                        po-       over, all over
                        pod-     under, off
                        pre-      over, excessiveness
                        pred-    pre, prior
                        pri-       addition, onto
                        pro-      through, passing
                        raz-      separation, spreading apart
                        s-         with, from
                        su-       together, with, co-
                        u-         in, into
                        uz-       with, up
                        za-        in, at
You will find some variations from grammar book to grammar book.
 

Flying …..

Don’t think that these prefixes change just the base verb ići. There are thousands of such verbs, and for all that I know, every one of them has variations brought about by prefixes.
 
Just as a further example, here are some verbs derived from the base verb ljetiti (to fly) by the addition of prefixes. The meanings given are very concise.
                        doljetiti              to fly to
                        izljetiti               to fly from
                        nadljetiti           to fly aboves
                        obljetiti             to fly around
                        odljetiti             to fly off
                        podljetiti           to fly under
                        poljetiti             to start flying
                        preljetiti            to fly across
                        proljetiti            to fly by
                        razljetiti se       to fly apart
                        saljetiti             to harass
                        sljetiti               to land
                        uzljetiti             to fly up
                        zaljetiti se        to start flying
 
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The base verb stati

In another post (Prefixes with base verb stati) I have compiled a list of verbs which are derived from the base perfective verb stati (as well as the corresponding verbs derived from the imperfective stajati).

In this case, I have gathered a rather comprehensive set of meanings, so that you can see that there are even significantly different meanings of the same word.

It certainly takes a long while to get one’s head around all of this. At least it did for me! And it is an ongoing process.