When You See a Tadpole: Future Conditions
To talk about an action that must occur before another future action can take place, Croatian often uses the exact future tense (futur drugi) after words like kada (when). It is formed using the perfective present tense of the verb biti (to be) — budem, budeš, bude, and so on — combined with the active l-participle of the main verb, such as vidio (seen) or promijenio (changed).
| When I see a tadpole, I will take a picture of it. | Kada budem vidio punoglavca, slikat ću ga. |
| When the chameleon changes color, you will see its scales. | Kada kameleon bude promijenio boju, vidjet ćeš njegove ljuske. |
The Bigger, the Better: Proportional Comparisons
When you want to express how one thing changes in proportion to another, like saying "the more... the more..." in English, Croatian uses the correlative pair što... to... along with comparative adjectives or adverbs.
| The bigger the frog, the more dangerous the toad is. | Što je žaba veća, to je krastača opasnija. |
| The faster the venomous snake crawls, the more I am afraid. | Što otrovnica brže puže, to se ja više bojim. |
But Nevertheless: Expressing Contrast with Ipak
To highlight an unexpected contrast or concession, use the adverb ipak (nevertheless / anyway). It is very frequently paired with ali (but) to create the phrase ali ipak (but nevertheless).
| The lizard has green scales, but it is nevertheless not dangerous. | Gušter ima zelene ljuske, ali ipak nije opasan. |
| The toad is scary, but it is nevertheless a very important amphibian. | Krastača je strašna, ali ipak je jako važan vodozemac. |
