In Croatian, adding the prefix i- to question words creates indefinite pronouns that emphasize "anyone at all" or "anything whatsoever." These are predominantly used in questions, sentences expressing doubt, and conditional clauses (sentences starting with ako, meaning "if").
| Base Word | Meaning | i- Prefix Form | Meaning |
|---|
| tko | who | itko | anyone |
| što | what | išta | anything |
| kakav | what kind | ikakav | any kind of |
| koji | which | ikoji | any |
| gdje | where | igdje | anywhere (location) |
| kamo | where to | ikamo | anywhere (direction) |
Anyone and Anything
itko (anyone) and išta (anything) are the most common of these pronouns. Just like tko and što, they change their form (decline) depending on their grammatical role in the sentence.
Any Kind Of
ikakav translates to "any kind of," while ikoji simply means "any" (usually referring to items out of a specific group). Because they function as adjectives, they must decline to match the gender, number, and case of the noun they describe. For example, after the preposition bez (without), which requires the genitive case, ikakav becomes ikakvog.
Anywhere (Location vs. Direction)
Croatian distinguishes between static location and motion toward a destination. Use igdje for "anywhere" when asking where something is located or hiding. Use ikamo when asking if someone is going anywhere.
The Interrogation
Let's look at how these pronouns tie together in a legal or investigative context using vocabulary like povezan (connected), svjedočiti (to testify), and sud (the court).
