When a company faces a scandal, the public relations team goes into overdrive. Every statement, apology, and press conference is carefully calculated to spin the narrative. When navigating these situations in Croatian, you will often need to state the precise purpose behind an action.
The Emphatic Postposition: "radi"
The preposition radi means "for the sake of" or "because of" and always takes the Genitive case. While prepositions normally sit directly in front of the nouns they modify, formal Croatian features a very common stylistic exception.
To sound authoritative, formal, and to place heavy emphasis on the purpose of an action, radi is placed immediately after a bare Genitive noun.
| Therefore we organized a public appearance, for the sake of context. | Stoga smo organizirali istup konteksta radi. |
Notice how konteksta (the Genitive form of kontekst) comes right before radi. This postpositional placement is a hallmark of legal texts, business correspondence, and PR speak.
| It is assumed that the director will deny everything, for the sake of reputation. | Pretpostavlja se da će direktor sve demantirati ugleda radi. |
Common Collocations
Because this structure is so strongly tied to formal and professional environments, several combinations function almost like fixed expressions. You will frequently hear about actions taken for the sake of "precaution" (predostrožnost), "transparency" (transparentnost), or just "for the sake of form" (red).
| However, they apologized for the sake of precaution. | Međutim, ispričali su se predostrožnosti radi. |
| We answered every inquiry, for the sake of transparency. | Odgovorili smo na svaki upit transparentnosti radi. |
| We denied the scandal, for the sake of form. | Demantirali smo skandal reda radi. |
Combining Nouns
If your purpose involves multiple factors, you do not need to repeat the preposition. Simply state all of your nouns in the Genitive case, join them with a conjunction, and place radi at the very end of the phrase.
| For the sake of transparency and precaution, we will publish the entire report. | Transparentnosti i predostrožnosti radi, objavit ćemo cijeli izvještaj. |
Standard vs. Stylistic Order
Keep in mind that placing radi before the noun is still perfectly grammatically correct. Using the standard word order simply carries a more neutral tone compared to the polished, emphatic flair of putting it at the end.
| For the sake of preserving the reputation, the director apologized. | Radi očuvanja ugleda, direktor se ispričao. |