Appointing and Declaring
In English, we say someone is "appointed principal" or "declared innocent." In Croatian, verbs of designating and evaluating—like imenovati (to appoint) and proglasiti (to declare)—require the Instrumental case for the assigned role or state.
The person receiving the title is the direct object in the Accusative case (ga), while the newly assigned title or state is in the Instrumental (ravnateljem, nedužnim):
| The committee appointed him principal. | Odbor ga je imenovao ravnateljem. |
| The judge declared him innocent. | Sudac ga je proglasio nedužnim. |
Considering and Dubbing
This rule applies to verbs of naming and evaluating, such as prozvati (to dub) and smatrati (to consider).
If the assigned role includes an adjective, both the noun and the adjective take the Instrumental case to match.
| The spokesperson considers him an innocent man. | Glasnogovornik ga smatra nedužnim čovjekom. |
| They dubbed him the successor, but he, on the other hand, refused it. | Prozvali su ga nasljednikom, ali on je to, s druge strane, odbio. |
| The principal dubbed him an honorary citizen. | Ravnatelj ga je prozvao počasnim građaninom. |
Making and Evaluating Concepts
Use this same structure to express that someone made something a certain way (using učiniti - to make) or when evaluating abstract concepts.
Even when the direct object is an indefinite pronoun like sve (everything / all), the adjective describing its evaluated state or result takes the Instrumental case.
| The committee considers everything new suspicious. | Odbor sve novo smatra sumnjivim. |
| Our spokesperson made all of that possible. | Naš glasnogovornik učinio je sve to mogućim. |