When plans change or obstacles arise, you need ways to express alternatives, exceptions, and persistence. Croatian uses specific prepositions for these situations.
Alternatives (umjesto)
When one thing replaces another, use the preposition umjesto (instead of). This preposition requires the noun or pronoun that follows it to be in the genitive case.
Feminine nouns like kava (coffee) take an -e ending (kave). Masculine nouns like sok (juice) take an -a ending (soka).
| I will choose tea instead of coffee. | Odabrat ću čaj umjesto kave. |
| Others are drinking beer instead of juice. | Ostali piju pivo umjesto soka. |
If you are replacing a person, personal pronouns also take their genitive form. For example, on (he) becomes njega, and ja (I) becomes mene.
| If he gives up, others will work instead of him. | Ako on odustane, ostali će raditi umjesto njega. |
Exceptions (osim)
To single out an exception to a rule or situation, use the preposition osim (except, besides). Like umjesto, it also requires the genitive case.
Feminine nouns ending in -a, such as kiša (rain), change to -e (kiše).
| Except for the rain, we have no other obstacles. | Osim kiše, nemamo drugih prepreka. |
| No one came except him. | Nitko nije došao osim njega. |
Persistence (bez obzira na)
When an action continues despite a condition, use the phrase bez obzira na (regardless of). While the word obzir (consideration) is in the genitive here after bez (without), the preposition na dictates the case of the obstacle itself. In this phrase, na requires the accusative case.
For inanimate masculine nouns like umor (fatigue), the accusative is identical to the nominative. For feminine plural nouns like iznimke (exceptions), the accusative also looks the same as the nominative.
| We played football regardless of the fatigue. | Igrali smo nogomet bez obzira na umor. |
| That is the rule, regardless of the exceptions! | To je pravilo, bez obzira na iznimke! |
You can combine these structures to describe complex changes in plans, making sure to apply the correct case for each preposition.
| He is working instead of me, regardless of fatigue. | On radi umjesto mene, bez obzira na umor. |
