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Croatian

### Arguments and Placing Blame

To learn how to use emphatic pronouns, we will look at the vocabulary of a heated argument (**svađa**).

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When things go wrong, people naturally want to know who is responsible or who they should blame (**kriviti**).

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### Full Pronouns for Emphasis and Contrast

Normally, you use short, unstressed pronouns (like **me**, **te**, or **ga**). However, if you want to emphasize *exactly* who is to blame or express a strong contrast ("not *you*, but *me*!"), you must use the full, emphatic form of the pronoun.

For "me", the full form for both the Accusative and Genitive cases is **mene**.

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There is another strict rule in Croatian: you must always use these full forms after prepositions. Short pronouns are never allowed to follow words like **u** (in/at), **na** (on/at), or **protiv** (against).

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For "you" (singular), the emphatic form is **tebe**. Notice how full forms are perfect for contrasting two people in the same sentence.

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### Emphatic Third-Person Pronouns

For "him" or "it", the emphatic Accusative and Genitive form is **njega**.

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For "her", the emphatic Genitive form is **nje**. Prepositions like **bez** (without) and **protiv** (against) always require the Genitive case.

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For "them", the emphatic form is **njih**.

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### Prepositions "umjesto" and "osim"

Two very useful prepositions during a dispute are **umjesto** (instead of) and **osim** (except). Both of these require the Genitive case, which means they are always followed by the full pronoun forms.

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Finally, here is a sentence that brings together the vocabulary of blame with multiple emphatic pronouns at once:

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Emphatic accusative and genitive pronouns (mene, tebe)

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular pronouns and to be (sam, si, je)

Noun genders (-Ø, -a, -o/-e)

Demonstrative pronouns (ovaj, ova, ovo)

Plural pronouns and to be (smo, ste, su)

Masculine plural nouns (-i)

Feminine plural nouns (-e)

Neuter plural nouns (-a)

Full verb to be (jesam, jesi)

Negative verb to be (nisam, nisi)

Yes/no questions (je li)

Wh- questions (tko, gdje)

Formal vs informal address (ti vs Vi)

Regular present tense (-ati)

Regular present tense (-iti)

Regular present tense (-jeti)

Verb negation (ne)

The verb to have (imati / nemati)

Inanimate direct objects

Feminine direct objects (-u)

Plural direct objects (-e, -a)

Accusative pronouns (me, te, ga, ju)

Adjective agreement

Plural adjectives

Accusative adjectives

Numbers 1 to 10 (jedan, dva, tri)

The locative case (-u)

Feminine locative (-i)

The verb to go (ići)

Destination (u, na)

The genitive case (-a)

Accusative pronouns (nas, vas, ga, ih)

Animate masculine accusative (-a)

Adjective agreement for animate masculine (-og, -eg)

The verb can (moći)

The verb must (morati)

The verb to want (htjeti, hoću)

The future tense (ću/ćeš + infinitive)

The past tense: l-participle (radio, radila)

Past tense word order (Prvo sam radio...)

Past tense with plural subjects (-li, -le, -la)

Feminine genitive singular (-e)

Possession and origin (od, iz)

Negative existence (nema)

Numbers 2, 3, and 4

Genitive plural (-a)

Numbers 11 to 20

Past tense negation (nisam)

Past tense questions (jeste li)

Dative singular

Dative pronouns (ti, mu, joj)

Past tense negation (nisam, nisi...)

Double object pronouns (mu ga, ti ju...)

Reflexive verbs (se)

Reflexive clitic word order

Commands and requests (radi, radite)

Plural demonstratives (ovi, ove, ova)

Possessive determiners (moj, naš, njegov)

Greetings (Dobar dan, doviđenja)

The body: Boli me glava

Directions (lijevo, desno, ravno)

There is, there are (ima)

Politeness (molim vas, hvala lijepa)

How you feel (Sviđa mi se)

Counting by tens to 100 (trideset, četrdeset...)

Quantifiers with the genitive case (malo, puno...)

Adjective agreement in the genitive singular (-og, -e)

Adjective agreement in the genitive plural (-ih)

Genitive prepositions (kod, do, bez...)

Asking what kind and which (kakav, koji)

Possessive determiners (njegov, njezin...)

Possessives in the accusative case

The reflexive possessive (svoj)

Indefinite pronouns (netko, nešto, neki)

Negative pronouns (nitko, ništa)

The verb to need (trebati)

Reciprocal verbs (se)

Introduction to verbal aspect

Perfective verbs with prefixes

Perfective verbs with stem changes

Irregular perfective verbs

Aspect in the past tense

Aspect in the future tense

Vehicular motion (voziti se, putovati)

Arrival and departure ('doći', 'otići')

Entering and exiting ('ući', 'izaći')

Singular accompaniment ('s', 'sa')

Question	Answer
argument	svađa
Our argument lasted a long time.	Naša svađa je dugo trajala.
Why did this argument start?	Zašto je počela ova svađa?
Who is to blame for this problem?	Tko je kriv za ovaj problem?
culprit	krivac
The main culprit is keeping quiet.	Glavni krivac šuti.
to blame	kriviti
Don't blame the brother!	Nemoj kriviti brata!
The director blames the worker because he lost the document.	Direktor krivi radnika jer je izgubio dokument.
me (emphatic)	mene
Don't blame me!	Nemojte kriviti mene!
Everyone is looking at me because I am late.	Svi gledaju u mene zato što kasnim.
you (emphatic, sg.)	tebe
He is angry at you, and not at me.	On je ljut na tebe, a ne na mene.
I have nothing against you.	Nemam ništa protiv tebe.
him (emphatic)	njega
She asks dad, and not him.	Ona pita tatu, a ne njega.
This argument is because of him.	Ova svađa je zbog njega.
her (emphatic, gen.)	nje
I don't want to go there without her.	Ne želim ići tamo bez nje.
He always speaks against her.	On uvijek govori protiv nje.
them (emphatic)	njih
The director blames them because they are late.	Direktor krivi njih zato što kasne.
He is worse than them.	On je gori od njih.
instead of	umjesto
Why did you call him instead of me?	Zašto ste zvali njega umjesto mene?
Instead of her, her brother came.	Umjesto nje, došao je njezin brat.
except / besides, apart from	osim
Everyone arrived on time except you!	Svi su stigli na vrijeme osim tebe!
Nobody knows anything except them.	Nitko ništa ne zna osim njih.
He is the culprit, why are you blaming me instead of him?	On je krivac, zašto kriviš mene umjesto njega?