Telling time in Croatian is not really a question of vocabulary — it is a question of which case the preposition takes, and a few prepositions secretly take two cases depending on what kind of time you are talking about. The headline trap is the preposition u: it means "on / at" with a day or a clock time but "in" with a month or a year, and it switches case between those two uses. Get that one split right and most of the temporal system falls into place. This page lays out the time prepositions, the case each one governs, and the everyday traps an English speaker walks into.
The big one: u + accusative vs u + locative
The single most important fact about Croatian time prepositions is that u splits by unit of time. With small units — days of the week, parts of the day, clock times — u takes the accusative. With large units — months and years — u takes the locative. Same preposition, two cases, two kinds of time.
| Time unit | Preposition + case | Example |
|---|---|---|
| day of the week | u + accusative | u ponedjeljak (on Monday) |
| part of the day | u + accusative | u podne (at noon), u zoru (at dawn) |
| clock time | u + accusative | u tri sata (at three o'clock) |
| month | u + locative | u svibnju (in May) |
| year | u + locative | u 2025. (in 2025) |
The logic, such as it is: the accusative is Croatian's case for a point you are pinning down — a specific day, a specific hour. The locative is the case for a frame you sit inside — the whole expanse of a month or a year. A Monday is a target; May is a container. That intuition will not cover every edge case, but it predicts the common ones.
Vidimo se u utorak oko pet.
See you on Tuesday around five. — 'u' + accusative 'utorak' for a weekday.
Sastanak je u tri sata.
The meeting is at three o'clock. — 'u' + accusative 'tri sata' for a clock time.
Vjenčali su se u lipnju.
They got married in June. — 'u' + locative 'lipnju' for a whole month.
Diplomirala je u 2025. godini.
She graduated in 2025. — 'u' + locative; '2025. godini' is the locative of the year.
A useful contrast to keep in mind: a specific date uses no preposition at all and goes into the genitive (petog svibnja — on the fifth of May), while the whole month of May uses u + locative (u svibnju). The dates system is covered in full on the genitive time expressions page; here we focus on the prepositional time phrases.
za + accusative: "in / within" and "during"
Za + accusative carries two distinct time meanings. First, it measures how far in the future something will happen — "in / within" a stretch of time counted from now. This is the answer to "za koliko?" ("in how long?").
Stižem za sat vremena.
I'll be there in an hour. — 'za' + accusative 'sat vremena' = an interval measured from now.
Vraćam se za dva tjedna.
I'm coming back in two weeks. — 'za' + accusative for a future interval from now.
Second, in the fixed phrase za vrijeme + genitive (note: here vrijeme is itself in the genitive), za helps express "during / at the time of" some larger event. Do not confuse the two: za sat vremena (accusative, "in an hour from now") versus za vrijeme rata ("during the war").
Za vrijeme rata obitelj je živjela u inozemstvu.
During the war the family lived abroad. — 'za vrijeme' + genitive 'rata' = throughout that period.
The genitive time prepositions
A whole cluster of time prepositions take the genitive. These are the ones that locate an event relative to another point — before it, after it, up to it, since it, around it, throughout it.
| Preposition | Meaning | Example (genitive) |
|---|---|---|
| prije | before | prije podne (before noon) |
| poslije / nakon | after | poslije ručka / nakon ručka (after lunch) |
| do | until, by | do petka (until/by Friday) |
| od | since, from | od jutra (since morning) |
| tijekom / za vrijeme | during, in the course of | tijekom dana (during the day) |
| oko | around (approx.) | oko ponoći (around midnight) |
Prije and poslije / nakon are exact opposites — "before" and "after." Poslije and nakon are near-synonyms; nakon feels a touch more formal in writing, poslije is the everyday choice in speech, but both are correct everywhere.
Nazovi me prije osam.
Call me before eight. — 'prije' + genitive 'osam'.
Idemo na pivo nakon posla?
Shall we grab a beer after work? — 'nakon' + genitive 'posla'.
Do and od form the other natural pair: od marks the start of a stretch ("since / from"), do marks its end ("until / by"). They very often appear together to bracket a span.
Radim od devet do pet.
I work from nine to five. — 'od' + genitive 'devet', 'do' + genitive 'pet' bracket the span.
Čekam te ovdje do ponoći.
I'll wait for you here until midnight. — 'do' + genitive 'ponoći'.
Tijekom and za vrijeme both mean "during," with tijekom being slightly more formal and za vrijeme more conversational; both take the genitive. And oko does double duty in time, meaning "around / approximately": oko podneva (around noon), oko deset sati (around ten o'clock).
Tijekom ljeta grad je pun turista.
During the summer the city is full of tourists. — 'tijekom' + genitive 'ljeta'.
Dođi oko osam, ne moraš biti točan.
Come around eight, you don't have to be punctual. — 'oko' + genitive 'osam' = approximate time.
You will meet this whole genitive family again, in their spatial and abstract senses too, on the genitive after prepositions page.
Quick reference: every time preposition by case
| Case | Prepositions | Sense |
|---|---|---|
| Accusative | u (day/hour), za | on a day, at an hour; in X from now |
| Locative | u (month/year) | in a month, in a year |
| Genitive | prije, poslije, nakon, do, od, tijekom, za vrijeme, oko | before, after, until, since, during, around |
The bare genitive with no preposition also marks dates and determined periods (petog svibnja, prošle godine); that is a separate mechanism, detailed on the genitive time expressions page. And u + accusative for weekdays is shared with the accusative time expressions page.
Common Mistakes
❌ Vjenčali su se u svibanj.
Incorrect — a whole month takes 'u' + locative, so 'u svibnju', not the accusative 'svibanj'.
✅ Vjenčali su se u svibnju.
They got married in May. — 'u' + locative for the month.
❌ Vidimo se u utorku.
Incorrect — a weekday takes 'u' + accusative: 'u utorak'. The locative 'utorku' is wrong for days.
✅ Vidimo se u utorak.
See you on Tuesday. — 'u' + accusative for a day of the week.
❌ Stižem u sat vremena.
Incorrect — 'in an hour from now' is 'za sat vremena' (za + accusative), not 'u'.
✅ Stižem za sat vremena.
I'll be there in an hour. — 'za' + accusative for an interval counted from now.
❌ Nazovi me prije osmi sat.
Incorrect — 'prije' takes the genitive: 'prije osam' (before eight), not the nominative/ordinal.
✅ Nazovi me prije osam.
Call me before eight. — 'prije' + genitive.
❌ Radim od devet do pet sati svaki dan na nedjelju.
Incorrect — 'on Sunday' is 'u nedjelju' (u + accusative), not 'na nedjelju'; days take 'u', not 'na'.
✅ Nedjeljom ne radim, radim u subotu.
I don't work on Sundays; I work on Saturday. — 'u' + accusative 'subotu' for a single day.
Key Takeaways
- u splits by unit: with days, parts of the day, and clock times it takes the accusative (u ponedjeljak, u podne, u tri sata); with months and years it takes the locative (u svibnju, u 2025. godini). This is the biggest temporal trap.
- za + accusative = "in / within X from now" (za sat vremena, za dva tjedna); the separate phrase za vrijeme + genitive = "during" (za vrijeme rata).
- The genitive time prepositions: prije (before), poslije / nakon (after), do (until/by), od (since/from), tijekom / za vrijeme (during), oko (around, approx.).
- A specific date uses no preposition and goes genitive (petog svibnja); a whole month uses u + locative (u svibnju). Don't mix them.
- Always ask first: day/hour (→ accusative) or month/year (→ locative)?
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- Genitive in Time ExpressionsB1 — Dates, parts of the day, and durations in the genitive.
- Accusative in Time ExpressionsB1 — Durations and 'on/at' time phrases with the accusative.
- Genitive after PrepositionsA2 — The large family of prepositions that take the genitive.
- Locative: 'About' and Other UsesB1 — The o-locative for topics and the po/pri uses.
- Abstract and Causal PrepositionsB1 — Prepositions in cause, purpose, topic, and source-of-authority senses — zbog vs radi, o, po, prema, bez, protiv, umjesto, pomoću.