Chinese (Mandarin)

Spanish

English

Hindi

Arabic (Modern Standard)

Portuguese

Bengali

Russian

Japanese

Punjabi

German

Javanese

Malay

Telugu

Vietnamese

Korean

French

Marathi

Tamil

Urdu

Turkish

Italian

Chinese, Yue / Cantonese

Thai

Gujarati

Chinese, Jin

Chinese, Min Nan

Dari

Farsi

Polish

Pashto

Kannada

Chinese, Xiang

Malayalam

Sundanese

Hausa

Odia

Burmese

Chinese, Hakka

Ukrainian

Bihari, Bhojpuri

Tagalog

Yoruba

Bihari, Maithili

Uzbek

Sindhi

Amharic

Fula

Romanian

Oromo

Igbo

Azerbaijani

Chinese, Gan

Dutch

Kurdish, Central

Kurdish, Northern

Kurdish, Southern

Malagasy

Lahnda, Saraiki

Nepali

Sinhalese

Chittagonian

Zhuang

Khmer

Turkmen

Assamese

Madurese

Somali

Marwari

Bihari, Magahi

Haryanvi

Hungarian

Chhattisgarhi

Greek

Chewa

Dakhini

Akan, Twi

Akan, Fante

Kazakh

Chinese, Min Bei

Sylheti

Zulu

Czech

Kinyarwanda

Marwari, Dhundhari

Haitian Creole

Chinese, Min Dong

Ilocano

Quechua

Kirundi

Swedish

Hmong

Shona

Uyghur

Hiligaynon

Mossi

Xhosa

Belarusian

Balochi

Croatian

### Flickering Lights and Darkness

The first sign of a power outage is often when the **rasvjeta** (lighting) starts to **treperiti** (flicker).

{{item:1104565}}

{{item:1104567}}

When the power finally cuts out, **tama** (darkness) will **zavladati** (take over).

{{item:1104571}}

To describe what had *already* happened before another past event, Croatian uses the pluperfect tense (*pluskvamperfekt*). It is formed by combining the perfect tense of **biti** (to be)—such as *je bila* or *smo bili*—with the past participle of your main verb.

{{item:1104573}}

### Overloads and the Power Grid

Power outages are frequently caused by an overload, or **preopterećenje**, which can trigger a short circuit. This can severely damage the broader **elektroenergetski** (electric power) system.

{{item:1104576}}

{{item:1104579}}

### Taking Precautions

To prepare for a blackout, it is a good idea to have an **agregat** (generator) ready. Most importantly, you should **iskopčati** (unplug) your sensitive electronics so they are not damaged by power surges.

{{item:1104586}}

Here are more examples using the pluperfect tense to show precautions taken *before* a specific point in the past. Notice the structures *bili smo upalili* (we had turned on) and *bio sam iskopčao* (I had unplugged).

{{item:1104582}}

{{item:1104585}}

### Restoring the Power Supply

Eventually, workers are dispatched to **uspostaviti** (restore) the **opskrba** (supply) of electricity.

{{item:1104588}}

{{item:1104592}}

Power Outage

adjective

adverb

conjunction

determiner

interjection

noun

numeral

particle

prep

preposition

pronoun

sentence

verb

Singular pronouns and to be (sam, si, je)

Noun genders (-Ø, -a, -o/-e)

Demonstrative pronouns (ovaj, ova, ovo)

Plural pronouns and to be (smo, ste, su)

Masculine plural nouns (-i)

Feminine plural nouns (-e)

Neuter plural nouns (-a)

Full verb to be (jesam, jesi)

Negative verb to be (nisam, nisi)

Yes/no questions (je li)

Wh- questions (tko, gdje)

Formal vs informal address (ti vs Vi)

Regular present tense (-ati)

Regular present tense (-iti)

Regular present tense (-jeti)

Verb negation (ne)

The verb to have (imati / nemati)

Inanimate direct objects

Feminine direct objects (-u)

Plural direct objects (-e, -a)

Accusative pronouns (me, te, ga, ju)

Adjective agreement

Plural adjectives

Accusative adjectives

Numbers 1 to 10 (jedan, dva, tri)

The locative case (-u)

Feminine locative (-i)

The verb to go (ići)

Destination (u, na)

The genitive case (-a)

Accusative pronouns (nas, vas, ga, ih)

Animate masculine accusative (-a)

Adjective agreement for animate masculine (-og, -eg)

The verb can (moći)

The verb must (morati)

The verb to want (htjeti, hoću)

The future tense (ću/ćeš + infinitive)

The past tense: l-participle (radio, radila)

Past tense word order (Prvo sam radio...)

Past tense with plural subjects (-li, -le, -la)

Feminine genitive singular (-e)

Possession and origin (od, iz)

Negative existence (nema)

Numbers 2, 3, and 4

Genitive plural (-a)

Numbers 11 to 20

Past tense negation (nisam)

Past tense questions (jeste li)

Dative singular

Dative pronouns (ti, mu, joj)

Past tense negation (nisam, nisi...)

Double object pronouns (mu ga, ti ju...)

Reflexive verbs (se)

Reflexive clitic word order

Commands and requests (radi, radite)

Plural demonstratives (ovi, ove, ova)

Possessive determiners (moj, naš, njegov)

Greetings (Dobar dan, doviđenja)

The body: Boli me glava

Directions (lijevo, desno, ravno)

There is, there are (ima)

Politeness (molim vas, hvala lijepa)

How you feel (Sviđa mi se)

Counting by tens to 100 (trideset, četrdeset...)

Quantifiers with the genitive case (malo, puno...)

Adjective agreement in the genitive singular (-og, -e)

Adjective agreement in the genitive plural (-ih)

Genitive prepositions (kod, do, bez...)

Asking what kind and which (kakav, koji)

Possessive determiners (njegov, njezin...)

Possessives in the accusative case

The reflexive possessive (svoj)

Indefinite pronouns (netko, nešto, neki)

Negative pronouns (nitko, ništa)

The verb to need (trebati)

Reciprocal verbs (se)

Introduction to verbal aspect

Perfective verbs with prefixes

Perfective verbs with stem changes

Irregular perfective verbs

Aspect in the past tense

Aspect in the future tense

Vehicular motion (voziti se, putovati)

Arrival and departure ('doći', 'otići')

Entering and exiting ('ući', 'izaći')

Singular accompaniment ('s', 'sa')

Question	Answer
lighting	rasvjeta
to flicker	treperiti
I watched the lighting flicker.	Gledao sam kako rasvjeta treperi.
The light in the room is flickering again.	Svjetlo u sobi opet treperi.
The street lighting isn't working today.	Rasvjeta na ulici danas ne radi.
This is the lighting that consumes a lot of electricity.	Ovo je rasvjeta koja troši puno struje.
darkness (gloom, obscurity)	tama
to take over	zavladati
Darkness fell over the whole city.	Tama je zavladala u cijelom gradu.
We were afraid when darkness fell.	Bojali smo se kada je tama zavladala.
Darkness had already fallen before we arrived.	Tama je već bila zavladala prije nego što smo stigli.
He is afraid of deep darkness.	On se boji duboke tame.
overload	preopterećenje
A short circuit happened because of an overload.	Kratki spoj dogodio se zbog preopterećenja.
The overload that destroyed the grid was huge.	Preopterećenje koje je uništilo mrežu bilo je ogromno.
electric power	elektroenergetski
The storm destroyed the power system.	Oluja je uništila elektroenergetski sustav.
They are working on the power grid.	Oni rade na elektroenergetskoj mreži.
generator	agregat
We had turned on the generator before the night.	Bili smo upalili agregat prije noći.
That is a generator that works well.	To je agregat koji dobro radi.
to unplug	iskopčati
I had unplugged the computer before the storm.	Bio sam iskopčao računalo prije oluje.
You must unplug all cables immediately.	Moraš odmah iskopčati sve kabele.
to restore (abstract concepts, order, relations)	uspostaviti
The workers will restore the electricity in the morning.	Radnici će ujutro uspostaviti struju.
I am happy because the workers restored the grid.	Sretan sam jer su radnici uspostavili mrežu.
supply (provisioning, act of supplying)	opskrba
The electricity supply here is bad.	Opskrba strujom ovdje je loša.
The supply had suddenly stopped.	Opskrba je odjednom bila stala.