Lars Henriksson
Prvi rijeci na hrvatski Dober dan, Ja ze zovem Lars Henriksson. Ja sam iz Švedske. Moja suproga zove Mia. Imam pet djeca. Ja živim u gradu. Gradu zove Lund. Imam varati. Ja koristim Google Translate. Ciao, Lars
Aug 11, 2014 5:53 PM
Corrections · 6
2

Prve[1] riječi na hrvatskom[2]

Dobar dan,
Ja se zovem Lars Henriksson. Ja sam iz Švedske.[3] Moja supruga se[4] zove Mia. Imam petero [OR: <em>petoro</em>; both is perfectly fine and correct] djece. Ja živim u gradu. Gradu se zove Lund.[5]
Imam varati Varam. Ja koristim Google Translate.[5]
Ciao,
Lars

 

 

 

[1]The noun "riječ" (plural: "riječi"), meaning "word", is of feminine gender and so the number has to be in the same gender. Ordinal numbers in their function very much resemble adjectives, and in Croatian they have all of the three genders. The number "first" in feminine gender singular is "prva", plural is "prve".

All of the three genders (m., f., n.) go like this (in nominative): singular - "prvi", "prva", "prvo"; plural - "prvi", "prve", "prva".

 

[2]The proper case here is locative. What you had there was accusative or, what's more likely, nominative, since you say you're using Google Translate. "Hrvatski" is an adjectival noun, meaning "hrvatski jezik" (here "hrvatski" is simply an adjective, paired with a noun), "Croatian language". Now, "jezik" is of masculine gender plus it's inanimate, and in that case, nominative and accusative are the same (this is, for example, also the case with neuter gender, regardless of animacy; so, it goes for "dijete", "child" as well as for "nebo", "sky"). Accusative of animate masculine gender differs from its nominative.

Now, why locative and not accusative? Locative indicates a position (Latin "locus" meaning "place/location"), whereas accusative, in terms of orientation, implies a destination, therefore some sort of movement. In standard language this is absolutely incorrect, however you can hear it in some dialects.

 

[3]The sentence is fine, and what you have there is "I am from Sweden", but you can also say "dolazim iz <em>X</em>" ("I come from <em>X</em>"). You can also omit the pronoun and say "iz Švedske sam".

 

[4]"Zvati" means "to call", "to invite". If the verb is reflexive, "zvati se" (literally "to call oneself"), the meaning is "to be called".

 

[5]Again, this is absolutely ok, but you can omit the personal pronoun when it is the subject, because the verb already contains that information (grammatical person, number and sometimes even the gender).

And in these sentences it sounds more natural.

So, if you did that, you'd get: "živim u gradu" and "koristim Google Translate".

And one more thing I'd do - connect "Ja živim u gradu." and "Grad se zove Lund." into one sentence. Then you would have: "(Ja) živim u gradu koji se zove Lund.", meaning "I live in a city whose name is Lund." / "... which is called Lund" (or, as I said, literally: "which calls itself Lund").

 

***

 

Was this way too much information for starters? Hope I didn't scare you. :)

Nice to meet you, Lars! :)

August 12, 2014

Prve i riječi (1) ci na hrvatskom (2) i

Dobar er dan,
Ja ze zovem Lars Henriksson. Ja sam iz Švedske. Moja supruga se (3) roga zove Mia. Imam petoro djece. a. Ja živim u gradu koji se . Gradu zove Lund.
Imam Moram varati (4). Ja koristim Google Translate.
Ciao,  Ćao.
Lars

1. I know that "riječ" grammatically should be a masculine, but it is not. It is one of the exceptions. That is why we put "prve". 

2. When we want to say: "In Croatian,English,Spanish, ..." we always say "NA" that literally means "ON" and then we cut "I" (hrvatski, engleski, španjolski, ...) and we put "OM". That is why we have "na hrvatskOM, na engleskOM, na španjolskOM, ....)

3. Zvati se is one of the reflexive verbs. That literally means "to call oneself". Actually, this "SE" is a short version of "SEBE - oneself"

So... literally, we have: " Ja SE zovem" (that means... Ja zovem sebe -- I call myself)

Ti SE zoveš  (that means... Ti zoveš sebe -- You call yourself)

ON SE zove  (that means... On zove sebe -- He calls himself)

etc

4. have to --- morati

Ja moram - I have to

Ti moraš - You have to

On,ona,ono mora - He,she,it has to 

Mi moramo - We have to

Vi morate - you have to

Oni,one,ona moraju - They have to

Cool, keep it up Lars. 

November 20, 2016
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