pozivati / pozvati (to invite)

Pozvati / pozivati is the verb for inviting — asking someone over for dinner, to a party, to a wedding, or formally summoning them to an event. It shares a root with zvati ("to call, phone, be named"), but this page is specifically about the invite sense; for "call out to", "phone", and "be called/named", see zvati / nazvati. The thing to fix in memory is the perfective present stem pozov- (pozovem) — the infinitive has an a, but the present switches to o, exactly as in zvati → zovem. The government is the heart of the verb: you invite someone (accusative) to something (na + accusative).

Aspect

The perfective pozvati is a single invitation — I invited her, done. The imperfective pozivati covers repeated or habitual inviting (Stalno nas pozivaju na večeru, "They're always inviting us to dinner") and the general practice. This is a suffix-formed aspect pair: the perfective is the base, and the imperfective pozivati is built by stem extension.

Present tense

Pozvati takes e-class endings on the stem pozov-; pozivati is a regular a-class verb.

The perfective present pozovem is not a "now" tense; it reads as a future or condition: Ako te pozovem, hoćeš li doći? ("If I invite you, will you come?"). For the ongoing/habitual sense use pozivam.

The l-participle

Pozvati gives masculine pozvao (vocalised -l), feminine pozvala. Pozivati: pozivao / pozivala.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle. The everyday "I invited" is the perfective pozvao sam / pozvala sam.

Future I (futur prvi)

Pozvati → pozvat ću (drops -i); pozivati → pozivat ću.

Imperative

The perfective pozovi! ("invite [them]!") is the normal request for a specific invitation; the imperfective pozivaj! implies repeated inviting. Note the imperative stem matches the present: pozov- → pozovi.

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle, for polite offers and hypotheticals.

Other forms

• Passive participle: pozvan, pozvana, pozvano ("invited"). The stem pozva- takes a plain -n with no jotation. It is extremely common in the predicate: Svi su pozvani ("Everyone is invited"), Bili smo pozvani na svadbu ("We were invited to the wedding"). The imperfective gives pozivan.
• Verbal adverb: imperfective pozivajući ("[while] inviting"). The perfective has no present adverb.

Key uses and government

1. The guest: accusative

The person you invite is the accusative direct object — whom you invite. See the accusative direct object.

2. The event: na + accusative

This is the core pattern. The thing you invite someone to — dinner, coffee, a party, a wedding — goes in na + accusative (the same na of direction, "onto / to an event"). The full frame is pozvati nekoga na nešto.

3. Inviting someone to do something: a da-clause

To invite someone to do something (rather than to an event), Croatian prefers a da-clause with the subjunctive-like present, since the second subject differs from the first. See da vs the infinitive.

4. pozvati se na — "to cite / invoke" (formal)

In formal and legal register, the reflexive pozvati se na + accusative means "to cite, refer to, invoke" — a law, an article, a precedent. This is a fixed idiom worth recognising in official texts.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• pozivati (impf, pozivam) = repeated/habitual inviting; pozvati (pf, pozovem, imperative pozovi!) = one invitation — note the present o-stem, never *pozvam.
• Government = accusative guest + na + accusative event: pozvati nekoga na nešto.
• To invite someone to do something, use a da-clause: pozvati nekoga da…
• Passive participle pozvan; Svi su pozvani ("Everyone's invited"). Future drops -i: pozvat ću.
• For "call out / phone / be named", use zvati / nazvati, not pozvati. The formal idiom pozvati se na = "cite/invoke".