Annotated Opinion Column | Croatian Grammar

The opinion column is where Croatian prose gets to argue, and its grammar is built for persuasion rather than report. It marshals argumentative connectives — međutim, ipak, naprotiv, s druge strane — to stage a debate and then knock down the other side. It colours its claims with stance adverbs and hedges — navodno ("allegedly"), očito ("obviously"), nažalost ("unfortunately") — that tell the reader how to feel about each fact. It needles with rhetorical questions, often launched by the particle zar, which expects the answer "of course not". It reaches into the conditional to imagine alternatives. And it reorders sentences — fronting the word it most wants you to weigh — far more freely than a news report would. Below is a short, invented column on a neutral civic topic, urban public transport, read sentence by sentence. The opinions are fictional; the rhetorical grammar is the subject.

The text

Gradski prijevoz, kažu nam već godinama, uskoro će postati moderan i pouzdan.

Public transport, we have been told for years, will soon become modern and reliable.

Međutim, tko god je jutros čekao tramvaj na kiši, zna da je stvarnost posve drukčija.

However, anyone who waited for a tram in the rain this morning knows that the reality is quite different.

Navodno su nove linije već u pripremi, no o konkretnim rokovima nitko ne želi govoriti.

New lines are allegedly already in preparation, but no one is willing to talk about concrete deadlines.

Zar je doista toliko teško osigurati da tramvaj dođe na vrijeme?

Is it really so hard to ensure that a tram arrives on time?

Očito nije, jer u susjednim gradovima isti sustav funkcionira besprijekorno.

Obviously it is not, because in neighbouring cities the same system works flawlessly.

Kad bi grad uložio u održavanje koliko ulaže u promidžbu, putnici bi to odmah osjetili.

If the city invested in maintenance as much as it invests in advertising, passengers would feel it immediately.

Ipak, problem nije samo u novcu; naprotiv, najviše nedostaje politička volja.

Still, the problem is not only money; on the contrary, what is most lacking is political will.

S druge strane, nažalost, dok god putnici šute, nitko se neće ni potruditi to promijeniti.

On the other hand, unfortunately, as long as passengers stay silent, no one will even bother to change it.

Argumentative connectives: staging the debate

The column's spine is a chain of contrastive connectives, each doing a slightly different rhetorical job. Međutim ("however") opens the rebuttal: after the official promise, Međutim, …stvarnost je posve drukčija swings the reader against it. It sits clause-initially with a comma, and is the formal cousin of everyday ali. Ipak ("still, nevertheless") concedes and then pushes past — Ipak, problem nije samo u novcu admits the money point matters but says it is not the whole story. Naprotiv ("on the contrary") flatly reverses what was just denied: …nije samo u novcu; naprotiv, najviše nedostaje politička volja — not money, but its opposite, will. And s druge strane ("on the other hand") pivots to a fresh angle: S druge strane, …dok god putnici šute…. Together they let the columnist run an argument like a dialogue, raising a view and dispatching it.

The distinctions are real and worth fixing. Međutim contrasts; ipak concedes-then-overrides; naprotiv reverses a negated claim; s druge strane introduces a counter-balancing consideration.

Cijene karata su porasle; međutim, broj putnika nije pao.

Ticket prices have risen; however, the number of passengers has not fallen. (međutim — straight contrast)

Sustav nije zastario; naprotiv, vozila su novija nego igdje u regiji.

The system is not outdated; on the contrary, the vehicles are newer than anywhere in the region. (naprotiv — reverses the negation)

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Keep the contrastive set apart: međutim = a formal "however"; ipak = "still / nevertheless" (concede, then override); naprotiv = "on the contrary" (reverse a denied claim); s druge strane = "on the other hand" (a balancing angle). All sit clause-initially with a comma. See connectives of addition and contrast.

Stance adverbs and hedges: telling the reader how to feel

A columnist rarely states a fact flat; he tints it with a stance adverb that signals his attitude. Navodno ("allegedly, supposedly") is the hedge of distrust: Navodno su nove linije već u pripremi reports the official line while quietly disowning it — "so they claim, but I doubt it". Očito ("obviously, clearly") does the opposite, asserting something as self-evident to recruit the reader's agreement: Očito nije ("Obviously it isn't"). Nažalost ("unfortunately") is pure evaluation, marking the writer's regret: S druge strane, nažalost, …. These adverbs typically front the clause, where they colour everything that follows.

This is a key persuasive device: by choosing navodno over a neutral report, the writer makes you doubt before you have read the claim; by choosing očito, he makes disagreement feel foolish. English does the same with "allegedly", "clearly", "sadly" — but Croatian places them more freely, very often clause-initially.

Navodno je rješenje već pronađeno, ali ga nitko nije vidio.

A solution has allegedly already been found, but no one has seen it. (navodno — distancing hedge)

Nažalost, takvih je primjera sve više.

Unfortunately, there are more and more such examples. (nažalost — the writer's evaluation, fronted)

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Stance adverbs are persuasion in miniature: navodno ("allegedly") plants doubt, očito ("obviously") forces agreement, nažalost ("unfortunately") signals regret. They usually front the clause and colour all that follows — choosing one is itself an argumentative move. They behave like the modal particles on the emphatic and modal particles page.

The rhetorical question with zar

The sharpest tool in the column is the rhetorical question, and Croatian has a dedicated particle for the indignant kind: zar. Zar je doista toliko teško…? ("Is it really so hard…?") is not a request for information — it expects, and answers, "of course not". Zar loads a question with disbelief or reproach; it is the grammatical equivalent of a raised eyebrow. Note how the writer then answers his own question in the next sentence — Očito nije ("Obviously not") — a classic column move: pose the indignant question, then supply the damning answer yourself.

Zar combines naturally with negation for an even pointier effect: Zar nije jasno da…? ("Is it not clear that…?", i.e. "Surely it is obvious that…"). Unlike the neutral yes-no particle li, zar is inherently rhetorical and emotive; you would not use it to genuinely ask whether a tram is on time.

Zar je previše tražiti da raspored vrijedi i vikendom?

Is it too much to ask that the schedule applies on weekends too? (zar — rhetorical, expects 'no, it isn't')

Zar nismo sve ovo već čuli prošle godine?

Haven't we heard all this before last year? (zar + negation — pointed reproach)

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The particle zar turns a question into an accusation: Zar je toliko teško…? = "Surely it can't be that hard?". It expects the obvious answer and is heavy with disbelief or reproach — quite unlike the neutral question particle li. Columnists pose a zar-question and then answer it themselves. More on it under emphatic and modal particles.

The conditional: arguing from a hypothetical

To dramatise what should be done, the column slips into the conditional: Kad bi grad uložio… putnici bi to odmah osjetili ("If the city invested… passengers would feel it immediately"). This is the canonical Croatian conditional pattern — kad bi + the -l-participle in the if-clause, and bi + participle in the main clause. Both halves carry the conditional auxiliary bi, and the participle agrees with its subject (grad uložio, masculine; putnici osjetili, masculine plural). The construction lets the writer paint a counterfactual world — a better-run city — and so indict the real one by contrast.

The auxiliary bi is a second-position clitic, so it follows the first stressed element of its clause: putnici *bi to osjetili, not *putnici to bi osjetili. Getting that placement right is what makes a conditional sentence sound native.

Kad bi vozni red bio pouzdan, manje bi se ljudi vozilo automobilom.

If the timetable were reliable, fewer people would travel by car. (kad bi + participle / bi + participle)

Da je grad ranije reagirao, ovog problema danas ne bi bilo.

Had the city reacted earlier, this problem would not exist today. (da-conditional for a counterfactual)

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The conditional builds the columnist's "what if": kad bi + -l-participle in the if-clause, bi + participle in the result clause, both agreeing with their subject. The auxiliary bi is a second-position clitic — putnici bi to osjetili. See the first conditional.

Fronting: putting the point first

A columnist controls emphasis through word order. Croatian's free order lets him front whatever he wants weighed first. Gradski prijevoz, kažu nam već godinama, uskoro će postati moderan fronts the topic — gradski prijevoz — and parenthetically inserts the dismissive kažu nam ("we are told") before the verb even arrives, so the reader sits with "public transport" while the promise is undercut. Later, najviše nedostaje politička volja fronts the verb phrase najviše nedostaje ("what is most lacking is") ahead of the subject politička volja, building suspense toward the punchline. This information-structure freedom — putting the rhetorically loaded element first — is something English, with its rigid subject-verb-object order, can only approximate with clefts ("what is most lacking is…").

Politička volja, a ne novac, ono je što nedostaje.

Political will, not money, is what is lacking. (fronted contrast — the key term comes first)

Upravo zbog toga građani gube povjerenje.

It is precisely for that reason that citizens are losing trust. (fronted upravo zbog toga for emphasis)

Vocabulary gloss

Word / phrase	Meaning	Note
međutim	however	formal contrast, clause-initial
ipak	still, nevertheless	concede, then override
naprotiv	on the contrary	reverses a denied claim
s druge strane	on the other hand	introduces a balancing angle
navodno	allegedly, supposedly	distancing hedge
očito	obviously, clearly	asserts self-evidence
nažalost	unfortunately	writer's evaluation
zar	(rhetorical question particle)	expects "of course not"; emotive
pouzdan	reliable, dependable	key evaluative adjective here
promidžba	advertising, promotion	contrasted with održavanje (maintenance)
dok god	as long as, for as long as	dok god putnici šute = as long as passengers stay silent
politička volja	political will	the column's punchline term

A register note: this passage is (formal / journalistic — opinion), a notch warmer and more personal than the straight news report. The contrastive connectives (međutim, naprotiv, s druge strane) and the conditional belong to careful written argument; the stance adverbs (navodno, očito, nažalost) and the zar-question add a persuasive, almost spoken edge that a neutral news article would avoid. In conversation you would replace međutim with ali, drop the fronting, and ask a plain Je li stvarno tako teško? rather than the rhetorical Zar je doista toliko teško?. Reading an opinion column fluently means hearing the writer's stance behind the grammar — knowing that navodno means "I don't believe it" and that a zar-question is an accusation, not an enquiry.

Common Mistakes

❌ Zar li je doista toliko teško?

Particle clash — use zar OR li, never both. For an indignant rhetorical question, zar alone: Zar je doista toliko teško?

✅ Zar je doista toliko teško osigurati točnost?

Is it really so hard to ensure punctuality?

❌ Kad bi grad uložio, putnici osjetili bi to.

Clitic-placement error — bi must stand in second position: putnici bi to osjetili, not after the participle.

✅ Kad bi grad uložio, putnici bi to odmah osjetili.

If the city invested, passengers would feel it immediately.

❌ Sustav nije zastario, ipak, vozila su nova. (meaning: 'on the contrary')

Connective choice — to reverse a denied claim use naprotiv ('on the contrary'); ipak means 'still / nevertheless' and does not fit here.

✅ Sustav nije zastario; naprotiv, vozila su nova.

The system is not outdated; on the contrary, the vehicles are new.

❌ Linije su navodno u pripremi however nitko ne zna rokove.

Connective error — use the Croatian međutim, set off with a comma at the clause start; 'however' is English, and ali alone is too informal for a column.

✅ Linije su navodno u pripremi; međutim, nitko ne zna rokove.

The lines are allegedly in preparation; however, no one knows the deadlines.

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