Existential Sentences (there is/are)

English has one all-purpose existential frame — there is / there are — for asserting that something exists or is present. Croatian splits this job across two very different constructions, and choosing wrongly is one of the most common A2 errors. For indefinite existence ("there's some bread", "is there a problem?") Croatian uses a frozen third-person ima / nema + the genitive. For a thing in a definite location ("the book is on the table") it uses biti with word order doing the work English does with the. This page draws the line between the two, adds the presentational pattern that introduces new participants, and explains why the genitive shows up where English would expect nothing.

ima + genitive: "there is (some)"

To assert that something exists or is available, Croatian uses ima — historically "it has" — frozen in the 3rd person singular regardless of what follows, with the existing thing in the genitive. The genitive here is the partitive genitive: it means "some (of)", which is exactly the indefinite, uncounted sense English carries with there is some.

The frozen ima never changes for number: even with plural or multiple items, you keep singular ima and put everything in the genitive. This is the single fact that makes the construction feel alien to English speakers, who expect there is → there are to track number. The genitive complement is treated under partitive and quantity, and the verb imati itself on its reference page.

nema + genitive: "there isn't (any)"

The negative of ima is the irregular nema (a fused ne + ima), and it is even more rigidly genitive. This is the genitive of negation: under negation, the thing that does not exist must stand in the genitive, never the nominative or accusative. Nema is the existential counterpart of that rule, frozen in the 3rd singular.

The reason the genitive appears at all — where English has a bare noun — is the genitive of negation: a negated existence or object is expressed in the genitive. Nema simply bakes that rule into the verb.

biti + location: "the X is (somewhere)"

When the thing is definite and you are saying where it is — not whether it exists — Croatian drops ima/nema entirely and uses biti ("to be") with the noun in the nominative. Compare the two English sentences and their Croatian counterparts:

This is the heart of the matter: Croatian has no articles, so it uses word order to do what English does with a versus the. The element that comes last carries the new information. Put the location first and the thing last, and the thing reads as indefinite/newly-introduced ("there's a book…"); put the known thing first and the location last, and the thing reads as definite ("the book is…"). Same words, opposite definiteness, signalled purely by order. This information-packaging is the subject of topic and focus.

Choosing between ima and biti

The decision is cleaner than it first looks:

• Use ima / nema when you are asserting existence or availability of something indefinite/uncountable — "is there any…", "there's some…", "there's no…". Complement is genitive.
• Use biti when you are locating a definite, identified thing — "the X is (here/there)". Complement (the thing) is nominative; order signals definiteness.

Presentational order: introducing new participants

Croatian also introduces a brand-new participant by inverting the order so the verb comes first and the new subject trails — the presentational pattern, close in spirit to English along came a stranger or up popped a problem. The new element lands in final, focus position.

Notice that Dolazi netko and Netko dolazi differ in flavour just as the knjiga pair did: the trailing subject in Dolazi netko is freshly introduced ("there's someone coming"), while Netko dolazi takes "someone" as already in view and reports what they're doing. Verb-first presentational order is Croatian's way of saying "here comes something new."

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• For indefinite existence/availability, use frozen 3rd-singular ima / nema + GENITIVE: Ima kruha, Ima li problema?, Nema mjesta, Nema nikoga. Never make ima agree in number; never use the nominative.
• The genitive after nema is the genitive of negation; the genitive after ima is the partitive ("some of").
• For a definite thing in a location, use biti with the noun in the nominative: Knjiga je na stolu ("the book is on the table").
• With no articles, Croatian uses word order for definiteness: thing-last = indefinite/new ("there's a book…"), thing-first = definite ("the book is…").
• Presentational order (verb first, new subject last) introduces newcomers: Dolazi netko, Pojavio se problem.