Croatian Grammar #013
Verb endings: Who is the doer?
In the Croatian language, verbs define not only the action, but also the doer of the action.
This post builds upon a previous post (Grammar #001 Where are the pronouns?) which recognises that Croatians generally don’t use pronouns (such as he, you, we, they) because they are built into the form of the verb.
And why another post? Well because I appreciate the significance of that previous post more and more every day.
And why another post? Well because I appreciate the significance of that previous post more and more every day.
It is common knowledge that verbs are doing words.
Look up any dictionary (English, Croatian, or any other language) and you will find almost identical definitions along the lines of:
A verb is a word that expresses an act, occurrence, or a state of being.
OK, it’s correct that the infinitive of verbs tells us what action we are talking about. But in Croatian, the conjugated forms of verbs tell us much more than that.
Look up any dictionary (English, Croatian, or any other language) and you will find almost identical definitions along the lines of:
A verb is a word that expresses an act, occurrence, or a state of being.
OK, it’s correct that the infinitive of verbs tells us what action we are talking about. But in Croatian, the conjugated forms of verbs tell us much more than that.
Here are two mock conversations that remind me of many such misunderstanding that I have made. The questioner is my mother. Listen in .....
The start button below has the label Download File. This is misleading. The audio file will not download into your computer directory. You will just access the file from the cloud.
The start button below has the label Download File. This is misleading. The audio file will not download into your computer directory. You will just access the file from the cloud.
Yes, Bob, she asked you ‘Što rade?’, and not ‘Što radiš?’ Big difference, huh!?
And the other way around ….. Listen. Does this happen to you?
Again, you weren’t tuned in, Bob. Your Mum asked ‘Kamo ideš?’, and not ‘Kamo ide?’
What vastly different questions! And where is the information to tell you who she was talking about?
Yes of course, it is in the endings of the verbs – in these cases, rade and ideš.
And there is the point of this post …. As far as the declined forms of verbs are concerned (that is, not the infinitives), verbs tell us ….
- what action we are talking about (in the root of the verb), as well as
- who is doing the action (in the verb ending).
How important is the second of these! I’m getting better at making it an automatic part of listening.
Yes, this is more of the same from the previous post (Grammar #001 Where are the pronouns?) except that post focussed on the verb biti, and its conjugated forms sam, si, je, smo, ste, and su. The conjugated forms of biti are entirely different words, and not of the form with different endings on a base – such as (from vidjeti) vidim, vidiš, vidi, vidimo, vidite, vide, or (from imati) znam, znaš, zna, znamo, znate, znaju.
And my message (again) is about listening to the ends of the verbs to know the doer of the action (the subject of the verb), because you generally won't hear those little pronouns ja, ti, on, ona, mi, vi, oni, one.
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AHA! Learning Croatian with Bob
Correspondence: bobby.bucat@gmail.com
Correspondence: bobby.bucat@gmail.com