When you do something to someone—like inviting, greeting, or meeting them—that person is the direct object of the sentence. To avoid repeating their name or title, we use accusative object pronouns like "him," "her," "us," or "them."
Accusative Pronouns
Croatian has both long and short forms for these pronouns. In everyday speech, the short (clitic) forms are used almost exclusively unless you are heavily emphasizing the person.
| English | Croatian |
|---|
| me | me |
| you (singular) | te |
| him / it | ga |
| her / it | je (or ju) |
| us | nas |
| you (plural / formal) | vas |
| them | ih |
Word Order: The Second Position
These short pronouns are "clitics," meaning they do not carry their own stress and must lean on the words around them. Because of this, they follow a strict word order rule: they almost always sit in the second position of a sentence or clause, directly after the first stressed word or phrase (such as a time word, a subject, or a verb).
Using "nas" (us) and "vas" (you)
Here is how you use the accusative forms for "us" and "you" in a sentence. Notice how vas and nas lock into the second position, right after the time word (Večeras) or the subject (Oni).
Using "ga" (him) and "ih" (them)
You can smoothly replace full nouns with ga (him) or ih (them) to avoid repetition. For example, if you are talking about a group of guests, you can refer back to them using ih.