imati and Expressing Existence (ima/nema) | Croatian Grammar

The verb imati ("to have") looks simple, and as a possession verb it is. But it holds down a second, much bigger job that surprises learners: it is also Croatian's main way of saying "there is / there are." The third-person forms ima ("there is/are") and nema ("there isn't/aren't") freeze into impersonal expressions that take the genitive case and stay singular no matter how many things you are talking about. So Ima kruha means "there's (some) bread" and Nema problema means "no problem" — and both feel nothing like English "there is / there are." This page teaches imati as possession first, then its existential alter ego, and keeps the two side by side so you never confuse them.

imati: "to have" (possession)

As a plain verb, imati means "to have / to own." It conjugates regularly and takes a direct object in the accusative, exactly like English.

Person	Positive	Negative
ja	imam	nemam
ti	imaš	nemaš
on/ona/ono	ima	nema
mi	imamo	nemamo
vi	imate	nemate
oni/one/ona	imaju	nemaju

The negative is special: it is not ne + imati. The two fuse into a single word — nemam, nemaš, nema… — much like nisam (the negative of biti). You never write *ne imam.

Imam dva brata i jednu sestru.

I have two brothers and one sister.

Imaš li auto?

Do you have a car?

Nemam vremena za to danas.

I don't have time for that today. — fused negative 'nemam'.

Nemamo dovoljno stolica za sve.

We don't have enough chairs for everyone.

So far this is straightforward: a person has a thing, the verb agrees with the person, the thing goes in the accusative (imam auto).

ima / nema: "there is / there isn't"

Now the second job. The bare third-person-singular forms ima and nema, used without a personal subject, mean "there is / there are" and "there isn't / there aren't." This is the everyday Croatian way to assert that something exists or is available — and it has two properties that catch every English speaker out.

First: it stays singular — frozen in the 3rd person singular — no matter the number. "There is a problem" and "there are problems" both use ima; the verb does not become plural.

Second: the thing that exists goes in the GENITIVE, not the nominative. You do not say *Ima kruh ("there is bread") — you say Ima kruha, with the genitive kruha. This is the partitive logic: "there is (some) bread."

Ima kruha u kuhinji.

There's bread in the kitchen. — genitive 'kruha', frozen 'ima'.

Ima li mjesta za još jednog?

Is there room for one more? — genitive 'mjesta', 'li' for the question.

Ima ljudi koji to vole.

There are people who like that. — plural sense, but 'ima' stays singular; genitive plural 'ljudi'.

Look at that last example closely: the English is plural ("there are people"), but the Croatian verb is the singular ima, and ljudi is genitive. That gap — plural meaning, singular impersonal verb, genitive complement — is the whole lesson.

💡

The existential ima never agrees in number and never takes the nominative. "There are many people" is Ima puno ljudi — singular ima, genitive plural ljudi — not *Imaju mnogi ljudi. Whenever you mean "there is/are," lock the verb to ima and put the thing in the genitive.

nema: "there isn't / aren't" + genitive of negation

The negative existential nema ("there isn't / there aren't") works the same way and, like all Croatian negation, demands the genitive — here reinforced by the genitive of negation. It too is frozen in the singular.

Nema mlijeka, moramo kupiti.

There's no milk, we have to buy some. — genitive 'mlijeka' after 'nema'.

Nema nikoga kod kuće.

There's no one home. — negative pronoun in the genitive 'nikoga'.

U ovom gradu nema dobrih restorana.

There are no good restaurants in this town. — genitive plural 'dobrih restorana', singular 'nema'.

The pairing of nema with negative pronouns (nikoga, ničega) is everyday and obeys Croatian's negative concord: the negation stacks rather than cancelling out.

The two everyday idioms: Nema problema, Nema veze

Two fixed phrases built on nema are so common you will hear them constantly, and they show the genitive plainly:

Hvala ti puno! — Nema problema.

Thanks a lot! — No problem. — genitive 'problema'.

Oprosti što kasnim. — Nema veze.

Sorry I'm late. — It doesn't matter / never mind. — genitive 'veze'.

Nema problema ("no problem," literally "there isn't of-problem") and Nema veze ("never mind," literally "there isn't of-connection") are pure native idiom. Note that even here the noun sits in the genitive.

Possession vs existence, side by side

The single best way to fix this is to set the two jobs of imati against each other. In possession, the verb agrees with the owner and the thing is accusative. In existence, the verb is frozen at ima/nema and the thing is genitive.

Possession — agrees, accusative	Existence — frozen ima/nema, genitive
Imam auto. I have a car. (accusative 'auto')	Ima jedan problem. There's a problem. (existential)
Imamo dovoljno vremena. We have enough time.	Ima dovoljno vremena. There's enough time. (genitive)
Nemam novca. I don't have money.	Nema novca. There's no money.

Imam puno posla danas.

I have a lot of work today. — possession: 'imam' agrees with 'I'.

Ima puno posla u ovom uredu.

There's a lot of work in this office. — existence: frozen 'ima', genitive 'posla'.

Notice that Nemam novca and Nema novca differ by a single ending on the verb — nemam (I don't have) vs nema (there isn't) — yet one is personal possession and the other is impersonal existence. Croatian draws the whole distinction in that one letter.

💡

One quick test: can you put a "there is/are" in front of the English? If yes, you want the frozen ima/nema + genitive (Ima kruha = "there's bread"). If instead a specific subject has something, you want the agreeing imam/imaš/… + accusative (Imam kruh = "I have the bread"). The same word root, two completely different constructions.

A note on tense

The existential extends to other tenses with biti: past bilo je ("there was"), nije bilo ("there wasn't"), and future bit će ("there will be"). The genitive complement carries through.

Nije bilo nikoga na ulici.

There was no one on the street. — past existential, genitive 'nikoga'.

Bit će problema ako zakasnimo.

There'll be trouble if we're late. — future existential, genitive 'problema'.

These overlap with the existential uses of biti on biti: copula, existence, and location; in the present tense, though, ima/nema is the dominant choice.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ima kruh u kuhinji.

Wrong — the existential 'ima' takes the genitive, not the nominative.

✅ Ima kruha u kuhinji.

There's bread in the kitchen. — genitive 'kruha'.

❌ Imaju puno ljudi ovdje.

Wrong — the existential verb stays singular 'ima', it doesn't go plural.

✅ Ima puno ljudi ovdje.

There are a lot of people here. — frozen 'ima' + genitive plural 'ljudi'.

❌ Ne imam vremena.

Wrong — 'ne' + 'imati' fuses into one word.

✅ Nemam vremena.

I don't have time. — the fused negative 'nemam'.

❌ Nema problem.

Wrong — after 'nema' the noun must be genitive.

✅ Nema problema.

No problem. — genitive 'problema'.

Key Takeaways

imati = "to have" (possession): agrees with the owner, takes the accusative (Imam auto); negative fuses to nemam, nemaš, nema… — never ne imam.
ima / nema also mean "there is/isn't": they are frozen 3rd-person singular and take the genitive (Ima kruha, Nema mlijeka).
The existential never agrees in number: "there are many people" is Ima puno ljudi (singular ima, genitive plural ljudi).
Possession vs existence in one letter: Nemam novca ("I don't have money") vs Nema novca ("there's no money").
The idioms Nema problema and Nema veze are everyday native speech.

Now practice Croatian

Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.

Start learning Croatian→