donositi / donijeti, odnositi / odnijeti (bring / take away)

This page is the directional half of carrying. The base verb nositi ("carry; wear") is treated in full on its own page — see nositi / donijeti for the present, the "wear" sense, and the base paradigm. Here we take the prefixed family that turns "carry" into a one-shot delivery in a direction: donijeti ("bring [here]"), odnijeti ("take away [from here]"), and prenijeti ("carry across, transfer"). Each is a perfective with a matching imperfective (donositi, odnositi, prenositi). What makes them worth a page of their own is the three-part government — accusative thing + dative recipient + directional phrase — and a deceptively irregular stem: the infinitive shows -nijeti (with ije), but the present runs on -nesem and the masculine l-participle is -nio against feminine -nijela.

Aspect

The prefix does double duty: it adds a direction and it perfectivises. So nositi (impf, "carry around") becomes donijeti (pf, "bring, in one completed act"). To get an imperfective back — for habits or processes "in the direction" — Croatian re-imperfectivises with the -nositi suffix: donositi, odnositi, prenositi. This is the standard prefix-then-resuffix pattern; see forming aspect pairs by prefixation.

The aspect choice works exactly as elsewhere: the perfective is the single finished delivery (Donio sam ti knjigu "I brought you the book"), the imperfective is the repeated or ongoing activity (Svaki dan mi donosi novine "He brings me the paper every day").

Present tense

The infinitive -nijeti is misleading: the present is built on the -nes- stem, with regular e-class endings. This is the single most important irregularity here.

Because these are perfective, the present is never a "right now" tense; it reads as future/conditional in subordinate clauses (Čim donesem stvari, javim ti "As soon as I bring the things over, I'll let you know"). For "right now" you need the imperfective donosim, odnosim, prenosim — built regularly on the i-class -nos- stem.

The l-participle

Here is the second alternation to watch: the masculine drops to -nio while the feminine and the rest keep the -nije- of the infinitive. So donio but donijela; odnio but odnijela. This io / ije split is shared with other -ijeti verbs.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. None of these are reflexive — no se.

Future I (futur prvi)

All three drop the final -i of the infinitive before the clitic: donijet ću, odnijet ću, prenijet ću. Never write donijeti ću.

Imperative

Built on the present -nes- stem, so the imperatives are donesi, odnesi, prenesi — extremely high-frequency request forms.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle.

Other forms

• Passive participle: donesen / donesena / doneseno ("brought"), odnesen ("taken away"), prenesen ("transferred, broadcast"). Built on the -nes- stem. Prenesen is everyday in the media sense — Utakmica je prenesena uživo "The match was broadcast live".
• Verbal adverb: only the imperfectives form one — donoseći, odnoseći, prenoseći ("[while] bringing / taking away / transferring"). Perfectives never have a present verbal adverb.

Key uses and government

1. The thing carried: accusative

The core object — what you bring or take — is in the accusative. See the accusative as direct object.

2. The recipient: dative (no preposition)

To whom you bring something goes into the bare dative — no preposition, where English uses "to" or a double object. The natural order is verb + dative person + accusative thing: Donesi mi knjigu "Bring me the book". This is the same recipient-dative as with the dative indirect object.

3. The direction: a phrase, not a case alone

Donijeti/odnijeti almost always carry a directional phrase answering "where to / where from": na + accusative (na stol "onto the table"), u + accusative (u kuhinju "into the kitchen"), iz + genitive (iz garaže "out of the garage"), do + genitive (do auta "to the car"). The prefix sets the orientation (do- toward, od- away), and the phrase pins the exact endpoint. See prefixed directional verbs of motion.

4. donijeti a thing vs dovesti a person

The recurring transfer error: you bring a thing by carrying it (donijeti), but you bring a person — or deliver anything by vehicle — with dovesti (convey). Donijela sam vino "I brought wine", but Dovela sam mamu "I brought mum (along)". See the carrying-vs-conveying contrast under carrying and transport and the base verb nositi.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• The prefixed nositi family of one-shot directional transfer: donijeti (bring here), odnijeti (take away), prenijeti (carry across / transfer / broadcast); imperfectives donositi, odnositi, prenositi.
• Three stems in one verb: infinitive -nijeti (ije), present -nesem, masculine participle -nio but feminine -nijela.
• Government: accusative thing + dative recipient (no preposition) + a directional phrase (na/u
  • acc, iz/do
    • gen).
• donijeti a thing you carry; dovesti a person or anything by vehicle.
• Future drops -i: donijet ću, odnijet ću — never donijeti ću. Base verb: nositi.