Croatian academic writing has its own grammar, distinct from both journalism and conversation, and it is governed by a tension the writer must constantly manage: the demand to sound objective and impersonal, balanced against the need to signal what the author is doing in the text. It resolves this with two complementary devices. For claims presented as established or general, it uses the impersonal smatra se ("it is held"), može se ("one can"), valja ("one ought, it is fitting"). For the author's own moves — the structuring of the argument — it switches to the authorial "we": u ovom radu pokazujemo ("in this paper we show"). Around these it deploys verbal nouns to compress whole arguments and a precise set of logical connectives — naime, stoga, dakle — to mark the joints of the reasoning. Below is a short, invented paragraph from a paper on the history of standard Croatian, read sentence by sentence. The topic is illustrative; the grammar is the subject.
The text
U ovom radu pokazujemo da se proces standardizacije hrvatskoga jezika ne može razumjeti bez uvida u jezičnu politiku 19. stoljeća.
In this paper we show that the process of standardisation of the Croatian language cannot be understood without insight into the language policy of the nineteenth century.
Smatra se da je presudnu ulogu odigrao ilirski pokret, no ta je teza u novije vrijeme podvrgnuta kritičkom preispitivanju.
It is held that the Illyrian movement played a decisive role, but this thesis has recently been subjected to critical re-examination.
Naime, izbor štokavskoga narječja kao osnovice književnoga jezika nije bio isključivo lingvistički, nego i politički motiviran.
Namely, the choice of the Shtokavian dialect as the basis of the literary language was not exclusively linguistic but also politically motivated.
Valja istaknuti da su gramatičari toga razdoblja djelovali u uvjetima izrazite normativne neujednačenosti.
It ought to be emphasised that the grammarians of that period operated under conditions of pronounced normative inconsistency.
Stoga se rana kodifikacija ne može promatrati kao jedinstven i dovršen čin, nego kao postupno usuglašavanje suprotstavljenih pravopisnih rješenja.
Therefore early codification cannot be regarded as a single, completed act, but as the gradual reconciliation of competing orthographic solutions.
Kao što je pokazao Katičić (1991), oblikovanje norme tijesno je povezano s formiranjem nacionalnoga identiteta.
As Katičić (1991) has shown, the shaping of the norm is closely connected with the formation of national identity.
Iz navedenoga, dakle, proizlazi da standardizaciju treba shvatiti kao društveni, a ne samo jezikoslovni fenomen.
From the foregoing, therefore, it follows that standardisation should be understood as a social, and not merely a linguistic, phenomenon.
U nastavku rada podrobnije razmatramo ulogu pojedinih filoloških škola u tom procesu.
In the remainder of the paper we examine in more detail the role of the individual philological schools in that process.
The impersonal: smatra se, može se, valja
Academic Croatian presents general claims without an "I" or a named claimant, and it has three workhorse impersonal constructions for this. The first is the se-passive of a verb of thinking: smatra se da… ("it is held / considered that…"), drži se da…, pretpostavlja se da… ("it is assumed that…"). No one is named as doing the holding — the proposition stands as received scholarly opinion. The second is modal moći with se: ne može se razumjeti ("[it] cannot be understood"), može se zaključiti ("one can conclude") — an impersonal "one can / it is possible to". The third is the impersonal verb valja ("it is fitting / one ought"), which takes a bare infinitive: valja istaknuti ("it ought to be emphasised"), valja napomenuti ("it should be noted"). Valja is more formal and more typically written than its everyday cousin treba ("one should").
These are all ways of saying "the field thinks X" or "X is to be done" while keeping the author tactfully out of the sentence.
Može se zaključiti da podaci ne podupiru polaznu hipotezu.
One can conclude that the data do not support the initial hypothesis. (može se + infinitive — impersonal possibility)
Valja napomenuti da uzorak nije bio reprezentativan.
It should be noted that the sample was not representative. (valja + infinitive — impersonal obligation)
The authorial "we": u ovom radu pokazujemo
Against this impersonal background, the author surfaces in a controlled way — never with ja ("I"), which would sound immodest, but with the first-person plural mi: pokazujemo ("we show"), razmatramo ("we examine"), u nastavku rada ("in the remainder of the paper"). This is the authorial we, the convention of scholarly modesty (pluralis modestiae). Even a sole author writes pokazujemo, not pokazujem. Crucially, the verb ending alone carries the "we" — Croatian is pro-drop, so the pronoun mi is normally omitted; the -mo ending on pokazujemo / razmatramo is what signals the authorial voice.
The division of labour is precise. The author uses the authorial "we" for what the text does — pokazujemo da… ("we show that"), razmatramo ("we examine") — and the impersonal for what is the case in the field — smatra se ("it is held"). Reading academic Croatian means tracking this alternation: the "we" verbs map the argument's structure; the se-verbs report its content.
U prvom dijelu rada definiramo ključne pojmove, a potom analiziramo korpus.
In the first part of the paper we define the key concepts, and then we analyse the corpus. (definiramo, analiziramo — authorial we, pronoun omitted)
Tvrdimo da dosadašnja tumačenja zanemaruju dijalektalnu dimenziju.
We argue that the interpretations to date neglect the dialectal dimension. (tvrdimo — authorial we, marking the paper's own claim)
Verbal nouns: compressing an argument into a phrase
Like legal prose, academic Croatian leans on verbal nouns — but here they serve to compress arguments, not obligations. Standardizacija ("standardisation"), kodifikacija ("codification"), oblikovanje norme ("the shaping of the norm"), formiranje identiteta ("the formation of identity"), usuglašavanje rješenja ("the reconciliation of solutions") each name a whole process in one declinable word, so the writer can make that process the subject or object of a claim: standardizaciju treba shvatiti kao… ("standardisation should be understood as…"). The international -cija nouns (standardizacija, kodifikacija) sit alongside the native -nje type (oblikovanje, usuglašavanje); both are fully native in this register.
The genitive complement is what makes them powerful: oblikovanje norme ("the shaping of the norm"), izbor *štokavskoga narječja* ("the choice of the Shtokavian dialect"). The verbal noun plus its genitive object reproduces an entire clause — "someone shaped the norm" — as a tidy noun phrase.
Usporedba dvaju pravopisa otkriva duboke koncepcijske razlike.
A comparison of the two orthographies reveals deep conceptual differences. (usporedba dvaju pravopisa = a whole clause compressed)
Razumijevanje toga procesa zahtijeva poznavanje povijesnoga konteksta.
Understanding that process requires knowledge of the historical context. (two verbal nouns, each with a genitive complement)
Logical connectives: naime, stoga, dakle
The reasoning is held together by a small set of precise connectives, each with a distinct logical job — and they are not interchangeable. Naime ("namely, that is") introduces an explanation or specification of the previous statement: after asserting that the thesis has been re-examined, Naime, izbor… nije bio isključivo lingvistički unpacks why. Stoga ("therefore, hence") draws a consequence: Stoga se… ne može promatrati kao jedinstven čin states what follows from the preceding facts. Dakle ("thus, so") marks a conclusion or inference, often the wrapping-up of a step: Iz navedenoga, dakle, proizlazi da… ("From the foregoing, thus, it follows that…").
The contrast with everyday speech is sharp. Conversation would use zato or pa for "so", and might not mark the explanation at all. Naime, stoga and dakle are register flags: they make prose read as an academic argument with explicit logical seams. Stoga and dakle are near-synonyms, but stoga leans causal ("for that reason") while dakle leans inferential ("it therefore follows").
Rezultati su nekonzistentni; stoga ih treba tumačiti s oprezom.
The results are inconsistent; therefore they should be interpreted with caution. (stoga — drawing a consequence)
Hipoteza nije potvrđena. Dakle, polazni model treba revidirati.
The hypothesis was not confirmed. Thus, the initial model should be revised. (dakle — marking the inference)
Citation conventions
Croatian citation is compact and integrated into the syntax. The author-date reference sits inside the sentence: Kao što je pokazao *Katičić (1991)… ("As Katičić (1991) has shown…"). The author's surname stays in whatever case the syntax demands — here nominative as the subject of *je pokazao — and the year goes in parentheses immediately after. Other frames are prema (Brozović, 2008) ("according to (Brozović, 2008)", with the name in the genitive after prema) and (usp. Silić, 2006) (usp. = usporedi, "cf., compare"). Note that the verb after a kao što-frame keeps its natural tense — je pokazao (perfect) — with no special academic backshift.
Prema Brozoviću (2008), norma se uspostavlja postupno, a ne dekretom.
According to Brozović (2008), a norm is established gradually, and not by decree. (prema + dative Brozoviću; name declined)
Slično tumačenje nalazimo i u ranijim radovima (usp. Silić, 2006).
We find a similar interpretation in earlier works as well (cf. Silić, 2006). (usp. = usporedi, 'compare')
Vocabulary gloss
| Word / phrase | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| standardizacija | standardisation | verbal noun, -cija type |
| smatra se da | it is held / considered that | impersonal se-passive of smatrati |
| valja + infinitive | one ought, it is fitting to | impersonal; more formal than treba |
| narječje | dialect (major dialect group) | štokavsko narječje = the Shtokavian dialect |
| kodifikacija | codification (of a norm) | verbal noun |
| oblikovanje (norme) | the shaping (of the norm) | -nje verbal noun + genitive |
| naime | namely, that is | introduces an explanation |
| stoga | therefore, hence | marks a consequence |
| dakle | thus, so | marks an inference / conclusion |
| proizlaziti (proizlazi) | to follow, result (from) | iz navedenoga proizlazi = it follows from the foregoing |
| usp. (usporedi) | cf., compare | citation abbreviation |
| jezikoslovni | linguistic, of linguistics | native synonym of lingvistički |
A register note: the paragraph is firmly (academic / formal written). The impersonal smatra se and valja, the authorial pokazujemo, the -cija and -nje verbal nouns, and the connective trio naime / stoga / dakle would all sound stilted in conversation, where you would say misle da… ("they think that"), treba reći ("you have to say"), and zato for "so". A subtle native touch is the preference for native doublets in scholarly Croatian — jezikoslovni alongside the international lingvistički, narječje for dijalekt — which signals a careful, standard-conscious register. Reading this prose fluently means tracking the alternation between the impersonal (the field's claims) and the authorial "we" (the paper's own moves).
Common Mistakes
❌ U ovom radu pokazujem da je norma društveni fenomen. (in a formal paper)
Register error — scholarly Croatian uses the authorial plural: pokazujemo, not the singular pokazujem, even for a sole author.
✅ U ovom radu pokazujemo da je norma društveni fenomen.
In this paper we show that the norm is a social phenomenon.
❌ Smatra se da igrao je presudnu ulogu.
Word-order error — the clitic je must be in second position inside the da-clause: da je odigrao presudnu ulogu, not after the participle.
✅ Smatra se da je odigrao presudnu ulogu.
It is held that he/it played a decisive role.
❌ Rezultati su jasni, dakle treba ih provjeriti. (meaning: 'so, therefore')
Connective choice — for drawing a consequence use stoga ('for that reason'); reserve dakle for an inference/conclusion. Here stoga is the natural choice.
✅ Rezultati su jasni, stoga ih treba provjeriti.
The results are clear, therefore they should be checked.
❌ Prema Brozović (2008), norma se uspostavlja postupno.
Case error — prema governs the DATIVE, and the surname declines: prema Brozoviću, not the nominative Brozović.
✅ Prema Brozoviću (2008), norma se uspostavlja postupno.
According to Brozović (2008), a norm is established gradually.
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- The se-Passive and Impersonal ConstructionsB1 — Expressing 'one does / it is done' with se — the everyday Croatian passive.
- Nominalization StrategiesC1 — Turning clauses into noun phrases — the verbal noun in -nje with its genitive object, abstract -ost nouns, and condensing a da- or temporal clause into a noun phrase — and the formal register this creates.
- Connecting Ideas: Addition and ContrastB1 — Addition connectives (i, također, osim toga, štoviše) and contrast connectives (ali, međutim, ipak, naprotiv, s druge strane) — and the crucial split between sentence-internal conjunctions and sentence-initial discourse markers.
- Connecting Ideas: Cause, Result, PurposeB1 — Cause connectives (jer, budući da, zbog toga što), result and conclusion markers (zato, stoga, dakle, prema tome, ukratko) — and the split between subordinating jer mid-sentence and sentence-initial stoga/dakle.
- Annotated Encyclopedia ArticleB2 — An original encyclopedia-style opening about Zagreb, annotated sentence by sentence to show the grammar of reference Croatian: the defining copula X je Y, the genitive of definition (glavni grad Hrvatske), the se-passive for agentless facts (smatra se), relative koji clauses, and the neutral encyclopedic register.