otići / odlaziti (to leave/go away)

Otići ("to leave, to go away") is the prefixed perfective of motion away from a place — the verb you reach for when someone departs: leaves work, walks out of a room, goes off somewhere and is gone. It is built from the base motion verb ići plus the directional prefix ot-/od-, so it inherits ići's suppletive stems. Its imperfective partner is odlaziti, used for repeated or in-progress leaving ("I leave at five every day"). Learning the two together is the cleanest possible introduction to the perfective/imperfective aspect pair, because here the two members are visibly different words rather than just a prefix toggle.

Aspect

Otići is perfective: a single, completed departure, viewed as one whole event with its endpoint reached. Odlaziti is imperfective: it describes leaving as a process, a habit, or a repeated act.

The crucial English-speaker trap: a perfective verb in Croatian cannot have a present-tense meaning. Odem never means "I am leaving right now"; a perfective present is read as future or as a generic/conditional ("once I leave…"). For "I'm leaving now", you use the imperfective odlazim or simply the future otići ću. See what the perfective means.

Present tense

Otići uses the suppletive id- stem of ići with the prefix and a regular jotation at the seam (od- + idem → odem). Odlaziti is a regular i-class verb on the stem odlaz-.

The l-participle

The past stem is the suppletive iš- family: masculine otišao, feminine otišla. Odlaziti is fully regular: odlazio, odlazila.

The masculine otišao shows the vocalised -l (like išao from ići); every other form keeps š + l visible. A common written slip is otišo for otišao — fine in fast speech, wrong on paper.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. This is the everyday past "left / went away", and it is almost always the perfective otići — a departure is naturally a bounded event.

The imperfective perfekt marks a habit: Prije sam svaki dan odlazio pješice ("I used to leave on foot every day"). See aspect in the past.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive otići ends in -ći, so it stays full before the clitic — otići ću, never otit ću. (Contrast a -ti verb like odlaziti → odlazit ću.)

Imperative

The imperative of otići is otiđi (with the regular d → đ jotation; colloquially also the short odi). The imperfective imperative odlazi! tends to mean "go on, off you go / keep moving". Idi! from ići is the neutral "go!".

The negative command uses nemoj: Nemoj otići bez mene ("Don't leave without me"). See negative commands.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle.

Other forms

• Verbal adverb: the imperfective has the present adverb odlazeći ("[while] leaving"). The perfective otići forms the past verbal adverb otišavši ("having left"), literary in register.
• Passive participle: none — both verbs are intransitive (no direct object), so neither can be made passive.
• The aorist odoh: Croatian still keeps one living scrap of the aorist here. Odoh! (and plural odosmo) means "I'm off! / right, I'm leaving!" as a casual leave-taking — a fossil of the simple past used with present force. Odoh ja, vidimo se ("I'm off, see you").

Key uses and government

1. Leaving from a place: iz / s(a) / od + genitive

Departure source is marked by a genitive preposition, and which one mirrors the u/na you'd use for the destination:

• iz
  • genitive — out of an enclosed place (iz kuće, iz grada), pairing with u.
• s(a)
  • genitive — off a surface or away from a na-place (s posla, s mora, s otoka), pairing with na. See s/sa.
• od
  • genitive — away from a person (od bake, od liječnika).

2. Leaving to a destination: u / na + accusative

Otići can also foreground where you went: the same accusative of direction as ići.

3. otići vs izaći

Don't confuse otići ("leave, go away — and stay gone") with izaći ("go out, exit / step out"). Izaći stresses crossing a threshold outward (and is the standard verb for "go out" socially); otići stresses the departure itself.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Otići is perfective (odem, otišao); odlaziti is its imperfective partner (odlazim, odlazio).
• A perfective present (odem) is never "now" — it reads as future or generic; use odlazim / otići ću for "I'm leaving now".
• Source of departure: iz
  • gen (enclosed), s(a)
    • gen (a na-place), od
      • gen (a person); destination keeps u/na
        • accusative.
• Future stays full: otići ću. Imperative otiđi (short odi); negative Nemoj otići.
• Odoh! is a living aorist meaning "I'm off!". Distinguish otići (leave for good) from izaći (step out).