Arriving and Departing
To express the completed action of arriving at or departing from a destination, Croatian uses the perfective verbs doći (to come / to arrive) and otići (to leave / to depart). As perfective verbs, they focus on the result of the motion.
| We arrived at the airport on time. | Došli smo na aerodrom na vrijeme. |
| The bus has left for the border. | Autobus je otišao na granicu. |
Motion vs. Location
When using verbs of motion, pay attention to your prepositions. To express going to a destination (like a counter or a platform), you will often use the preposition na followed by the accusative case.
| My brother will come to the counter. | Moj brat će doći na šalter. |
| The train will arrive at platform three. | Vlak će doći na peron tri. |
When you are simply located at a place rather than moving toward it, use na with the locative case.
| Your suitcase is on the platform. | Tvoj kofer je na peronu. |
To specify where someone departed from, use the preposition iz (out of / from) followed by the genitive case.
| He left the hotel early. | Rano je otišao iz hotela. |
Luggage and Arrivals
Use kofer for a single suitcase, and the collective noun prtljaga for luggage in general.
| They brought the suitcases to the counter. | Donijeli su kofere na šalter. |
The event of arriving is the noun dolazak (arrival).
| We are waiting for your arrival. | Čekamo tvoj dolazak. |
| Our flight is long. | Naš let je dug. |
Timing and Schedules
You will often use doći and otići to describe whether things are running na vrijeme (on time) or happening uskoro (soon) according to the raspored (schedule).
| The train departed on time. | Vlak je otišao na vrijeme. |
| We must leave for the hotel soon. | Moramo uskoro otići u hotel. |
| The schedule is bad; no one came to the meeting. | Raspored je loš, nitko nije došao na sastanak. |
