Dialogue: Describing a Person

Describing a person is the scene that forces every adjective to "wear" its grammar on the outside. To say someone is tall, kind, or older than someone else, a Croatian adjective must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case — and choose between a definite and an indefinite form. This dialogue between two friends trying to spot a third person at a party puts those choices on display: agreement (visoka djevojka, "a tall girl"), the predicate adjective after biti (ona je visoka, "she is tall"), the definite/indefinite split, and the comparative (viši, "taller"; stariji, "older"). Read together, they show why a single English word like "tall" can surface in a dozen Croatian shapes.

The dialogue

— Iva: Vidiš li onu visoku djevojku kraj prozora? — Sara: Onu plavokosu? U crvenoj haljini? — Iva: Da, tu. To je moja sestrična Marta. — Sara: Aha! Mislila sam da je tvoja sestra. Slične ste. — Iva: Svi to kažu. Ali Marta je viša od mene i malo starija. — Sara: Izgleda jako simpatično. Kakva je inače? — Iva: Vrlo je vesela i pričljiva, ali ponekad tvrdoglava. — Sara: A onaj visoki tip pored nje? — Iva: To je njezin dečko, Filip. Tih je i ozbiljan, sušta suprotnost Marti. — Sara: Zanimljivo. Suprotnosti se privlače, kažu. — Iva: Tako je. Idemo ih pozdraviti?

Grammar in action

Adjective agreement — visoku djevojku. A Croatian adjective copies the gender, number, and case of its noun. Visok ("tall") becomes visoka before the feminine djevojka ("girl"), and when the whole phrase is the object of vidjeti it shifts to the accusative: visoku djevojku. The demonstrative onu ("that") agrees too. Every word in the phrase moves together.

Notice visoku (feminine) vs visoki (masculine) for the same English "tall." The rules for matching adjectives to their nouns are on adjective agreement basics.

Definite vs indefinite — visoki tip vs a tall guy. Croatian adjectives have two forms. The indefinite (short) form introduces something new or describes a quality in general; the definite (long) form points to a specific, identified one. With masculine adjectives the contrast is audible: indefinite visok ("tall, some tall man") vs definite visoki ("the tall one"). Sara and Iva are picking out particular people, so the definite visoki tip ("that tall guy") and onaj visoki feel right — they mean "the tall one we both can see."

The full split — when to reach for the long form, when for the short — is explained on definite and indefinite adjectives.

biti + predicate adjective — ona je visoka. When the adjective comes after the verb biti ("to be") as a predicate, it still agrees with the subject in gender and number, but it sits in the nominative and typically takes the indefinite form: Marta je vesela ("Marta is cheerful"), Filip je tih i ozbiljan ("Filip is quiet and serious"). This is the everyday "X is Y" pattern.

Here the subjects Marta and Filip are dropped because the previous lines make them obvious — Croatian pro-drop in action — while the predicate adjectives still show their gender. How attributive and predicate uses differ is on definite and indefinite adjectives.

Comparison — viša od mene, starija. To compare, Croatian adds a comparative suffix (most often -iji / -ji): visok → viši ("taller"), star → stariji ("older"). The thing compared to follows od + the genitive: viša od mene ("taller than me"). The comparative adjective still agrees with its subject — viša (feminine) for Marta.

Note izgleda simpatično uses the adverb simpatično, not an adjective — because it modifies how she looks, the verb, not a noun. The comparative system, including irregulars like dobar → bolji ("better"), is on the comparative.

Personality vocabulary in action. Describing character draws on a small core of predicate adjectives — vesela ("cheerful"), pričljiva ("talkative"), tvrdoglava ("stubborn"), tih ("quiet"), ozbiljan ("serious") — each agreeing with the person described.

The asking word kakav / kakva / kakvo ("what kind of") itself agrees with the noun — Kakva je Marta? but Kakav je Filip? More descriptive vocabulary is on clothing and appearance.

Vocabulary

Culture & register note

Key Takeaways

• Adjectives agree with their noun in gender, number, and case: visoku djevojku (fem. acc.) vs visoki tip (masc.).
• The definite (long) form points to a specific, identified one; the indefinite (short) form introduces or generalises — clearest on masculine adjectives (visoki vs visok).
• After biti, the predicate adjective stays nominative, takes the indefinite form, and still agrees: Marta je vesela, Filip je ozbiljan.
• Compare with the -iji/-ji comparative (viši, stariji) and od
  • genitive for "than": viša od mene.
• Use izgledati
  • adverb for impressions (izgleda simpatično); ask character with Kakav/Kakva je…? — which itself agrees.