Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Croatian

Whether you are describing a legal dispute, a sports rivalry, or a treatment fighting an illness, you will need the preposition **protiv** (against). This preposition always requires the noun, pronoun, or adjective that follows it to be in the **genitive case**.

### Legal Battles

When talking about lawsuits or testifying against someone, use *protiv* followed by the genitive.

Remember the standard genitive endings: feminine nouns ending in **-a** change to **-e** (like *tvrtka* to *tvrtke*), while masculine nouns take an **-a** ending (like *muž* to *muža*). Adjectives modifying these nouns must also match the case.

{{item:1079869}}

{{item:1079870}}

Personal pronouns also take their genitive form. For example, *on* (he) becomes *njega*.

{{item:1079874}}

### Medicine and Health

In Croatian, you describe what symptom or pathogen a medication treats by saying it acts *against* it. The illness or cause goes into the genitive case.

{{item:1079877}}

{{item:1079886}}

### Sports Matches

In sports, *protiv* is used to state who a team is competing against. Possessive pronouns like *vaš* (yours) or *svoj* (one's own) take the masculine genitive ending **-eg** or **-og** to match the masculine noun *klub* (club), even if the noun itself is implied rather than spoken.

{{item:1079889}}

{{item:1079890}}

Against (protiv)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular pronouns and to be (sam, si, je)

Noun genders (-Ø, -a, -o/-e)

Demonstrative pronouns (ovaj, ova, ovo)

Plural pronouns and to be (smo, ste, su)

Masculine plural nouns (-i)

Feminine plural nouns (-e)

Neuter plural nouns (-a)

Full verb to be (jesam, jesi)

Negative verb to be (nisam, nisi)

Yes/no questions (je li)

Wh- questions (tko, gdje)

Formal vs informal address (ti vs Vi)

Regular present tense (-ati)

Regular present tense (-iti)

Regular present tense (-jeti)

Verb negation (ne)

The verb to have (imati / nemati)

Inanimate direct objects

Feminine direct objects (-u)

Plural direct objects (-e, -a)

Accusative pronouns (me, te, ga, ju)

Adjective agreement

Plural adjectives

Accusative adjectives

Numbers 1 to 10 (jedan, dva, tri)

The locative case (-u)

Feminine locative (-i)

The verb to go (ići)

Destination (u, na)

The genitive case (-a)

Accusative pronouns (nas, vas, ga, ih)

Animate masculine accusative (-a)

Adjective agreement for animate masculine (-og, -eg)

The verb can (moći)

The verb must (morati)

The verb to want (htjeti, hoću)

The future tense (ću/ćeš + infinitive)

The past tense: l-participle (radio, radila)

Past tense word order (Prvo sam radio...)

Past tense with plural subjects (-li, -le, -la)

Feminine genitive singular (-e)

Possession and origin (od, iz)

Negative existence (nema)

Numbers 2, 3, and 4

Genitive plural (-a)

Numbers 11 to 20

Past tense negation (nisam)

Past tense questions (jeste li)

Dative singular

Dative pronouns (ti, mu, joj)

Past tense negation (nisam, nisi...)

Double object pronouns (mu ga, ti ju...)

Reflexive verbs (se)

Reflexive clitic word order

Commands and requests (radi, radite)

Plural demonstratives (ovi, ove, ova)

Possessive determiners (moj, naš, njegov)

Greetings (Dobar dan, doviđenja)

The body: Boli me glava

Directions (lijevo, desno, ravno)

There is, there are (ima)

Politeness (molim vas, hvala lijepa)

How you feel (Sviđa mi se)

Counting by tens to 100 (trideset, četrdeset...)

Quantifiers with the genitive case (malo, puno...)

Adjective agreement in the genitive singular (-og, -e)

Adjective agreement in the genitive plural (-ih)

Genitive prepositions (kod, do, bez...)

Asking what kind and which (kakav, koji)

Possessive determiners (njegov, njezin...)

Possessives in the accusative case

The reflexive possessive (svoj)

Indefinite pronouns (netko, nešto, neki)

Negative pronouns (nitko, ništa)

The verb to need (trebati)

Reciprocal verbs (se)

Introduction to verbal aspect

Perfective verbs with prefixes

Perfective verbs with stem changes

Irregular perfective verbs

Aspect in the past tense

Aspect in the future tense

Vehicular motion (voziti se, putovati)

Arrival and departure ('doći', 'otići')

Entering and exiting ('ući', 'izaći')

Singular accompaniment ('s', 'sa')

Question	Answer
lawyer	odvjetnik
lawsuit	tužba
Her lawyer is preparing a lawsuit against that company.	Njezin odvjetnik priprema tužbu protiv te tvrtke.
She is testifying against her ex-husband.	Ona svjedoči protiv bivšeg muža.
to sue	tužiti
Why do you want to sue your neighbor?	Zašto želiš tužiti svog susjeda?
I will sue your director because of the lie.	Tužit ću vašeg direktora zbog laži.
The lawyer is speaking in court against him.	Odvjetnik govori na sudu protiv njega.
to act	djelovati
syrup	sirup
Does this syrup work against a cold?	Djeluje li ovaj sirup protiv prehlade?
throat	grlo
This sweet syrup is good for the throat.	Ovaj slatki sirup je dobar za grlo.
infection / inflammation	upala
My throat hurts, I think I have an infection.	Boli me grlo, mislim da imam upalu.
bacteria	bakterija
This bacteria is the reason for your infection.	Ova bakterija je razlog tvoje upale.
The doctor has a new medicine against that bacteria.	Liječnik ima novi lijek protiv te bakterije.
virus	virus
This medicine does not work against the virus.	Ovaj lijek ne djeluje protiv virusa.
They do not have a medicine against this new virus.	Oni nemaju lijek protiv ovog novog virusa.
club	klub
Our club is playing against yours tomorrow.	Naš klub sutra igra protiv vašeg.
Why is he playing against his old club?	Zašto on igra protiv svog starog kluba?
The lawyer has a lawsuit against the company.	Odvjetnik ima tužbu protiv tvrtke.