In English, we use prepositions to express how long an action drags on (e.g., "for hours," "for years"). In Croatian, you express this kind of continuous temporal duration by putting the time word into the bare instrumental case, without any preposition.
Forming Duration Words
To show that an action stretches continuously over a long period, use the plural instrumental forms of time nouns.
- Masculine nouns like dan (day), tjedan (week), and mjesec (month) take the ending -ima: danima, tjednima, mjesecima.
- Feminine nouns ending in -a, like godina (year), take the ending -ama: godinama.
| We sailed for days on the sea. | Plovili smo danima po moru. |
| If I had a ship, I would sail for years. | Kad bih imao brod, plovio bih godinama. |
The same pattern applies to other time periods. The masculine noun sat (hour) becomes satima in the plural instrumental.
| The workers dug tirelessly for hours. | Radnici su neumorno kopali satima. |
| The scientists tirelessly searched for a solution for months. | Znanstvenici su neumorno tražili rješenje mjesecima. |
| We roamed around the foreign country for weeks. | Skitali smo se tjednima po stranoj zemlji. |
Prolonged and Lingering Actions
Because this bare instrumental construction emphasizes duration, you will almost always use it with imperfective verbs—actions that are ongoing, repetitive, or unresolved. It pairs perfectly with dramatic situations, staring, waiting in vain, or stalling.
| The storm raged for days and destroyed the city. | Oluja je bjesnjela danima i uništila grad. |
| He stared for hours at the empty paper on the table. | Zurio je satima u prazan papir na stolu. |
| We waited for him in vain for hours in front of the cinema. | Uzalud smo ga čekali satima ispred kina. |
| Why are you stalling for months with that decision? | Zašto odugovlačiš mjesecima s tom odlukom? |
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