The Particle bilo for Open-Ended Choices
When you want to express open-ended choices like "anyone," "anything," or "anywhere," Croatian uses the particle bilo. By placing bilo in front of a standard question word (an interrogative), you create a "free-choice" pronoun or adverb.
This is the perfect grammar tool for talking about spontaneous travel, drifting without an itinerary, and seeing where the road takes you.
Bilo tko (Anyone)
Combine bilo with tko (who) to get bilo tko (anyone / no matter who). Notice how it is written as two separate words.
| Anyone can go on a spontaneous trip. | Bilo tko može ići na spontan izlet. |
When traveling spontaneously, you might find yourself wandering aimlessly (besciljno) without a set route (ruta).
| We do not have a route, so we are driving aimlessly. | Nemamo rutu pa se vozimo besciljno. |
Bilo gdje vs. Bilo kamo (Anywhere)
Just as Croatian distinguishes between location (where you are) and direction (where you are going), there are two ways to say "anywhere":
- bilo gdje: Anywhere (static location / resting)
- bilo kamo: Anywhere (direction of motion / going somewhere)
| Tonight we can sleep anywhere. | Večeras možemo spavati bilo gdje. |
If you decide to hop on the highway (autocesta) without a destination in mind, you are heading bilo kamo.
| Are we going onto the highway or driving just anywhere? | Idemo li na autocestu ili se vozimo bilo kamo? |
Bilo kada (Anytime)
To talk about open-ended time, combine bilo with kada (when) to create bilo kada (anytime). This is incredibly useful when exploring unknown (nepoznat) places with no strict schedule.
| We can visit an unknown place anytime. | Bilo kada možemo posjetiti nepoznato mjesto. |
| We can change the route anytime. | Možemo promijeniti rutu bilo kada. |
Bilo što (Anything)
Finally, combine bilo with što (what) to get bilo što (anything / no matter what).
| We can eat anything because we do not have a plan. | Možemo jesti bilo što jer nemamo plan. |
| On the highway you can see anything. | Na autocesti možeš vidjeti bilo što. |
These free-choice words never change their form—except for pronouns like bilo tko and bilo što, which can be declined for case (e.g., bilo koga, bilo čemu) just like the base words tko and što.