Boundary adverbs (odsada, dotamo)

Boundary Adverbs of Time

When establishing strict rules—such as health protocols during an epidemic—you often need to define exact starting and ending points in time. You can do this by fusing the prepositions od (from) or do (up to/until) directly with time adverbs like sada (now) and tada (then).

  • odsada = from now on (od
    • sada)
  • dosada = until now (do
    • sada)
  • otada = since then (od
    • tada)
Until now we did not have the virus, but from now on the quarantine begins.
Dosada nismo imali virus, ali odsada počinje karantena.
The epidemic started in winter, and since then the infection is growing.
Epidemija je počela zimi, a otada zaraza raste.

Boundary Adverbs of Space: "Here"

Just as you can set limits in time, you can enforce physical boundaries. To describe limits starting or ending close to the speaker, fuse od and do with spatial roots meaning "here."

  • odavde = from here
  • dovde = up to here
Physical distance is necessary from here to here.
Fizička udaljenost je potrebna odavde dovde.
From now on, you may drive your car only up to here.
Odsada smijete voziti svoj auto samo dovde.

Boundary Adverbs of Space: "There"

When pointing out limits further away from the speaker, you combine the prepositions with roots pointing "there" (such as tamo).

  • dotamo = up to there
  • odatle = from there
  • dotle = up to there (an alternative to dotamo, often used to mean "up to that point")
Nobody is allowed to go from here up to there.
Nitko ne smije ići odavde dotamo.
She went from there to the hospital, so she must stay in quarantine.
Išla je odatle u bolnicu, pa mora ostati u karanteni.
You can go only up to there, because until now that area was safe.
Možete ići samo dotle jer je dosada to područje bilo sigurno.
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