Connectives (ili, samo, zato, no)

Or, and only

ili offers a choice: Pijemo kavu ili čaj? Doubled, it means either–or: ili danas, ili sutra. samo restricts: Imam samo deset minuta.

That's why vs because

You know zato što (because) introduces a reason. Bare zato points the other way — it introduces the RESULT: Pada kiša i zato sam doma. Compare: | direction | connector | example | | --- | --- | --- | | reason | zato što | Doma sam zato što pada kiša. | | result | zato | Pada kiša i zato sam doma. |

Not X, but Y

To correct something, Croatian uses nego after a negation — not the word you know from comparisons, but the corrective one: Ne pijem kavu, nego čaj.

The formal but

no is a slightly formal however — ali's dressed-up cousin, common in writing: Htio sam doći, no nisam mogao.