Too Much and Too Little
When discussing diets, nutrition, or recipes, you will often need to point out an imbalance. To describe an excess or a shortage, use the adverbs previše (too much / too many) and premalo (too little / too few).
| too little | premalo |
Whenever you use an adverb of quantity in Croatian, the noun that follows it MUST be in the genitive case. You can think of this as saying you have "too much of something" or "too little of something."
Uncountable Nouns
When talking about mass nouns—things you measure rather than count, such as sugar, fat, or energy—you will use the genitive singular after these adverbs.
| You eat too much sugar and fat. | Jedeš previše šećera i masti. |
| This meal has too much fat. | Ovaj obrok ima previše masti. |
Countable Nouns
When talking about items you can count, such as calories or vitamins, use the genitive plural after previše and premalo.
| This diet has too few calories. | Ova dijeta ima premalo kalorija. |
| We have too few vitamins for energy. | Imamo premalo vitamina za energiju. |
Once you master combining these adverbs with the genitive case, you can easily describe how different diets impact your health and weight.
| Your weight is dropping because you eat too few calories. | Težina ti pada jer jedeš premalo kalorija. |
