ticati se (to concern)

Ticati se ("to concern, to be the business of") is a verb you meet mostly in two fixed shapes, both indispensable in real Croatian: the topic-shifter Što se tiče… + genitive ("as for…, as far as X is concerned") that opens countless sentences in speech and writing, and the curt idiom Ne tiče te se ("it's none of your business"). The verb is defective — it lives almost entirely in the 3rd person (tiče se) — and it governs the genitive of whatever is concerned. Do not confuse it with odnositi se na + accusative ("to refer to, to relate to"): they translate similarly into English but take different cases and cover different ground. This is a C1 page because the difficulty is entirely in the government and the clitic clusters, not the meaning.

A note on the form: the perfective taknuti / imperfective ticati in the physical sense means "to touch" (Ne tiči to! "Don't touch that!"). This page is about the reflexive ticati se in the concern sense only — a different verb in everyday feel, even if historically related.

Aspect

In the concern sense, ticati se is imperfective and, for practical purposes, has no perfective partner — concern is a standing relation, not a bounded event, so it stays imperfective. (The perfective taknuti se belongs to the physical "touch upon / touch each other" sense.) Treat the concern verb as aspectually frozen.

Present tense — defective (3rd person only)

The concern verb is used essentially in the 3rd person singular and plural with a 3rd-person grammatical subject (to, ta stvar, ovo pitanje). There is no natural *tičem se "I concern" — a person is not normally the subject "concerning" someone; rather, a matter (to, stvar) concerns a person. So the 1st- and 2nd-person rows below are left blank on purpose.

The l-participle

Used for the past, again only in the 3rd person.

Perfect tense (perfekt) — 3rd person only

Clitic biti + l-participle, with the se clitic. Because the subject is always 3rd person, only the je / su forms occur.

Future I (futur prvi) — 3rd person only

The infinitive ticati drops its -i before the clitic: ticat će se. Rare in practice, since concern is usually framed in the present, but well-formed.

Imperative & conditional

• Imperative: none. There is no sensible command "concern!" addressed to a person — the verb has no 2nd-person subject, so the imperative slot is simply empty.
• Conditional I: possible in the 3rd person — To bi se moglo ticati i tebe ("That could concern you too") — but it normally appears under a modal (moglo bi se ticati) rather than as a bare ticalo bi se. Not a form to drill.

Other forms

• Passive participle: none — the verb is reflexive and intransitive (no accusative object), so it forms no personal passive.
• Present verbal adverb: tičući se exists but is vanishingly rare; you will not need it actively.
• Derived noun: none in common use for this sense; the topic-shifter što se tiče does the work a noun might.

Key uses and government

1. ticati se + genitive — "concern / be the business of"

Whatever (or whoever) is concerned goes into the genitive. The grammatical subject is the matter at issue (to, pitanje, odluka); the concerned party is the genitive complement. This is a lexical genitive — the verb simply demands it. See the genitive with verbs and adjectives.

2. The topic-shifter: Što se tiče + genitive…

By far the most common use. Što se tiče X-a… opens a sentence to mean "as for X / as far as X is concerned / regarding X". The X goes into the genitive. It is the natural Croatian way to flag a new topic, and it is at home in every register from casual chat to formal essays.

3. The clitic cluster: Ne tiče te se

The retort Ne tiče te se ("it's none of your business") packs two clitics after the verb: the genitive te ("of you") and the reflexive se. The order inside the cluster is fixed — the dative/genitive pronoun te precedes se — so it is te se, never *se te. Expanded with the subject it is To te se ne tiče, and the clitics still sit together in second position.

4. ticati se vs odnositi se na — concern vs refer to

These two are the classic mix-up. Ticati se takes the genitive and means "be the business/concern of"; odnositi se na takes na + accusative and means "refer to, apply to, relate to". A rule does not tiče se a paragraph — it odnosi se na a paragraph; but a decision tiče se the people it affects. See odnositi se.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• ticati se (concern) is imperfective and defective — used in the 3rd person (tiče se / tiču se); no imperative, no passive.
• It governs the genitive of the concerned party: tiče se cijele zajednice.
• The everyday shapes: Što se tiče + genitive… ("as for…") and Ne tiče te se ("none of your business", clitic cluster te se).
• Don't confuse with odnositi se na + accusative ("refer/apply to") — different case, different meaning.
• The physical "touch" verb (ticati / taknuti
  • accusative) is a separate verb and not what this page covers.