posuđivati / posuditi (to lend / to borrow) | Croatian Grammar

Posuditi is the verb that quietly does the work of two English verbs at once: it means both "lend" and "borrow". Croatian doesn't pick the direction with the verb — it picks it with the case of the other person. Posuditi nekomu (+ dative) = "lend to someone"; posuditi od nekoga (+ od + genitive) = "borrow from someone". That direction-by-case split is the spine of this page. The aspect pair is posuđivati (imperfective) / posuditi (perfective), and the -uje- present of the imperfective (posuđujem) is worth drilling.

The headline: one verb, two directions

English has two separate words and a learner's instinct is to look for two Croatian verbs. There aren't — there's one verb and two case frames. Think of posuditi as "to transfer-on-loan", and let the prepositions and cases tell you which way the thing is moving:

Direction	Frame	Example	English
LEND (to)	posuditi + accusative thing + dative person	posuditi nekomu auto	lend someone a car
BORROW (from)	posuditi + accusative thing + od + genitive person	posuditi auto od nekoga	borrow a car from someone

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The trick is to read the case, not the verb. Dative = "to", so the thing goes out of your hands → you're lending. od + genitive = "from", so the thing comes to you → you're borrowing. Posudio sam mu (dat.) = I lent him; posudio sam od njega (od + gen.) = I borrowed from him.

Posudio sam prijatelju auto za vikend.

I lent my friend the car for the weekend. — LEND: dative 'prijatelju'.

Posudio sam auto od prijatelja za vikend.

I borrowed the car from a friend for the weekend. — BORROW: 'od' + genitive 'prijatelja'.

Aspect

Verb	Aspect	Present 1sg	Typical use
posuđivati	imperfective	posuđujem	lending/borrowing as an activity; repeated/habitual
posuditi	perfective	posudim	one completed loan (lent it / borrowed it)

Posuditi = a single act of lending or borrowing, done. Posuđivati = the activity over time ("a library lends books", "I keep borrowing his tools"). This is a suffixal aspect pair: the imperfective is built with -iva-, which surfaces in the present as the -uje- stem (posuđujem), and triggers the d → đ softening you see throughout the imperfective.

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Note the soft đ: the imperfective is posuđivati / posuđujem / posuđen (all with đ), while the perfective infinitive keeps plain d: posuditi / posudim. The d → đ is iotation, the same change as roditi → rođen.

Present tense

Posuditi is a regular i-class perfective (posudim, posudiš…); posuđivati uses the -uje- present with đ.

Person	posuditi (pf)	posuđivati (impf)
ja	posudim	posuđujem
ti	posudiš	posuđuješ
on/ona/ono	posudi	posuđuje
mi	posudimo	posuđujemo
vi	posudite	posuđujete
oni/one/ona	posude	posuđuju

Knjižnica posuđuje knjige na tri tjedna.

The library lends books for three weeks. — imperfective, the activity/policy.

Ako mi posudiš punjač, vraćam ti ga odmah.

If you lend me the charger, I'll give it right back. — perfective present + dative 'mi'.

The l-participle and perfect

Person	Masculine subject	Feminine subject
ja	posudio sam	posudila sam
ti	posudio si	posudila si
on / ona	posudio je	posudila je
mi	posudili smo	posudile smo
vi	posudili ste	posudile ste
oni / one	posudili su	posudile su

The imperfective participle is posuđivao / posuđivala (with đ).

Posudila sam joj haljinu za vjenčanje.

I lent her a dress for the wedding. — LEND, feminine speaker, dative 'joj'.

Posudili smo opremu od susjeda.

We borrowed the equipment from the neighbours. — BORROW, 'od' + genitive 'susjeda'.

Future I (futur prvi)

The perfective posuditi drops -i before the clitic: posudit ću. The imperfective gives posuđivat ću.

Person	posuditi	posuđivati
ja	posudit ću	posuđivat ću
ti	posudit ćeš	posuđivat ćeš
on/ona/ono	posudit će	posuđivat će
mi	posudit ćemo	posuđivat ćemo
vi	posudit ćete	posuđivat ćete
oni/one/ona	posudit će	posuđivat će

Posudit ću ti novac, ali vrati mi ga do kraja mjeseca.

I'll lend you the money, but pay me back by the end of the month. — LEND, dative 'ti'.

Imperative

The perfective posudi! is the everyday request; with a dative it's "lend me...", with od it's "borrow it from...".

Person	posuditi (pf)	posuđivati (impf)
ti	posudi	posuđuj
mi	posudimo	posuđujmo
vi	posudite	posuđujte

Posudi mi kišobran, pljušti vani.

Lend me an umbrella, it's pouring outside. — LEND, dative 'mi'.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle — for polite requests, the natural register for asking a favour.

Person	posuditi (masc.)
ja	posudio bih
ti	posudio bi
on/ona/ono	posudio/posudila/posudilo bi
mi	posudili bismo
vi	posudili biste
oni/one/ona	posudili bi

Bi li mi posudio bušilicu na sat-dva?

Would you lend me the drill for an hour or two? — polite request, conditional.

Other forms

Passive participle: posuđen, posuđena, posuđeno ("lent / borrowed"), with the d → đ iotation. Used as an adjective and in the passive: posuđena knjiga ("a borrowed book"). The noun posuđenica even means "a loanword". The imperfective gives posuđivan.
Verbal adverb: imperfective posuđujući ("[while] lending/borrowing").

Vratio je sve posuđene knjige na vrijeme.

He returned all the borrowed books on time. — passive participle 'posuđen' as adjective.

Key uses and government

1. LEND: accusative thing + dative person

To lend, name the thing in the accusative and the recipient in the bare dative — the same indirect-object frame as kupiti and prodati. No preposition before the person. See dative: the indirect object.

Možeš li mi posuditi pet eura do sutra?

Can you lend me five euros until tomorrow? — LEND, dative 'mi'.

2. BORROW: accusative thing + od + genitive person

To borrow, keep the thing in the accusative but mark the source with od + genitive. The preposition od ("from") is what flips the direction. See genitive with verbs.

Posudila je sto eura od sestre.

She borrowed a hundred euros from her sister. — BORROW, 'od' + genitive 'sestre'.

Stalno posuđujem alat od oca.

I'm always borrowing tools from my dad. — BORROW, imperfective, 'od' + genitive 'oca'.

3. Both directions in one breath

Because the verb is the same, you can have the lender and the borrower in a single sentence and the cases keep them straight:

Posudio sam knjigu od Ane i posudio je Marku.

I borrowed the book from Ana and lent it to Marko. — 'od Ane' (borrow) vs dative 'Marku' (lend).

Common Mistakes

❌ Posudio sam novac od njemu.

Wrong case after 'od' — 'od' takes the GENITIVE: 'od njega'.

✅ Posudio sam novac od njega.

I borrowed money from him.

❌ Posudio sam mu novac od banke i dao prijatelja.

Direction muddle — LEND uses bare dative ('prijatelju'), not accusative; BORROW uses 'od' + gen. ('od banke').

✅ Posudio sam novac od banke i dao ga prijatelju.

I borrowed money from the bank and gave it to a friend.

❌ Posuđivam ti knjigu.

Wrong present stem — '-ivati' verbs take the '-uje-' present: 'posuđujem ti knjigu'.

✅ Posuđujem ti knjigu.

I'm lending you the book.

❌ Vratio je sve posudene knjige.

Missing diacritic — the passive participle has 'đ': 'posuđene' (d → đ jotation).

✅ Vratio je sve posuđene knjige.

He returned all the borrowed books.

❌ Posuditi ću ti auto.

Future form — drop the infinitive's -i before the clitic: 'Posudit ću ti auto'.

✅ Posudit ću ti auto.

I'll lend you the car.

Key Takeaways

posuditi means both lend and borrow — the case of the person sets the direction, not the verb.
LEND = accusative thing + bare dative person (posuditi nekomu — Posudio sam mu auto).
BORROW = accusative thing + od + genitive person (posuditi od nekoga — Posudio sam auto od njega).
Aspect pair posuđivati (impf, posuđujem) / posuditi (pf, posudim); note the d → đ softening in the imperfective and the participle.
Passive participle posuđen (with đ). Future drops -i: posudit ću (never posuditi ću).

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