Dialogue: Asking for a Recommendation

A visitor sits down at a café-bar and asks the waiter what is good. Asking for a recommendation is one of the most useful A2 skills, and it leans on a small, high-value toolkit: the ultra-polite request Što biste preporučili? ("What would you recommend?"), which is the conditional of preporučiti plus the implied dative meni ("to me"); the verb sviđati se for saying you like something (where the thing liked is the grammatical subject, not the object); and the superlative (najbolji, "the best"; najljepši, "the loveliest") for picking out the top of the range. Watching them work together in one short exchange is the fastest way to make all three stick.

The dialogue

— Gost: Dobar dan. Što biste preporučili za nekoga tko prvi put dolazi? — Konobar: Dobar dan. Ovisi, želite li nešto slatko ili slano? — Gost: Nešto slatko. Koji je vaš najbolji desert? — Konobar: Naša kremšnita je najpoznatija, ljudi dolaze samo zbog nje. — Gost: Zvuči odlično. A sviđa li se vama više kremšnita ili štrudla? — Konobar: Iskreno, meni se najviše sviđa štrudla od jabuka. — Gost: Onda ću to. A koja kava ide najbolje uz nju? — Konobar: Preporučio bih običnu macchiato, najbolje pristaje uz slatko. — Gost: Super. A gdje je najljepše sjesti, unutra ili na terasi? — Konobar: Po ovakvom vremenu, terasa je najljepša. Pogled je predivan. — Gost: Savršeno. Onda štrudla, macchiato i mjesto na terasi. — Konobar: Odličan izbor. Donosim odmah.

Grammar in action

Što biste preporučili? — the conditional as a polite request. The single most useful phrase here is Što biste preporučili? ("What would you recommend?"). It is the conditional: the auxiliary biste (the Vi/2pl conditional of biti) plus the past participle preporučili. The dative meni / mi ("to me") is left unspoken but understood, because preporučiti — like English "recommend" — gives something to someone. Using the conditional rather than the present (Što preporučujete?) makes the request markedly gentler, the difference between "what would you suggest" and "what do you suggest."

The waiter answers in kind, using the first-person conditional Preporučio bih… ("I would recommend…") — same construction, different person.

The full machinery of bih / bi / biste + participle is on the first conditional.

Sviđati se — the thing you like is the subject. Croatian does not "like" things the way English does. With sviđati se, the thing that pleases you is the grammatical subject, and you appear in the dative: sviđa mi se literally means "it is pleasing to me." So when the guest asks the waiter's preference, the verb agrees with kremšnita / štrudla, and the person sits in the dative (vama, meni). Get this backwards and you say the opposite of what you mean.

The conjugation and quirks of this verb are on sviđati se; how it differs from voljeti ("to love") is on voljeti vs sviđati se.

Superlatives — najbolji, najpoznatija, najljepše. To pick out the top of a range, Croatian prefixes naj- to the comparative: bolji → najbolji ("the best"), poznat → najpoznatija ("the most famous"), lijep → najljepši / najljepša / najljepše ("the loveliest"). The superlative agrees with its noun in gender, number, and case, which is why the same root shifts ending: najbolji desert (masc.), najpoznatija kremšnita (fem.), najljepša terasa (fem.). Note the regular lije- → lje- change in najljepši.

The full pattern of naj- superlatives and their agreement is on the superlative.

Question words — Što, Koji, Gdje. A recommendation runs on question words. Što asks "what" (Što biste preporučili?); koji/koja asks "which (of several)" and agrees with its noun (Koji desert?, Koja kava?); gdje asks "where" (Gdje je najljepše sjesti?). Croatian keeps the question word first and, in yes/no questions, adds li after the verb (sviđa li se…?, želite li…?).

Vocabulary

Culture & register note

Key Takeaways

• The politest way to ask for advice is the conditional: Što biste preporučili? — biste/bih
  • participle, with the dative person implied.
• With sviđati se, the thing you like is the subject and you are in the dative: sviđa mi se, sviđa li se vama — never the English word order.
• Build a superlative with naj-
  • comparative (najbolji, najpoznatija, najljepše); it agrees with its noun in gender, number, and case.
• Koji/koja ("which") agrees with its noun; yes/no questions add li after the verb (sviđa li se…?).
• Ordering can be telegraphic: Onda ću to ("Then I'll have that") drops the verb entirely.