Preposition splitting with negative pronouns (ni s kim)

When planning a retreat to a quiet cabin, you might want to disconnect completely—talking to no one, depending on no one, and worrying about nothing. To express these absolute boundaries in Croatian, you need negative pronouns like nitko (no one) and ništa (nothing).

However, when combining these negative pronouns (which start with the prefix ni-) with a preposition, the preposition jumps inside the word, splitting it into three separate parts.

Splitting the Pronoun

Instead of placing the preposition in front of the pronoun, Croatian splits the pronoun into its prefix (ni) and its core declined form (kim, čemu, etc.), placing the preposition right in the middle.

The formula is: ni + preposition + declined pronoun.

Let's look at how this works in the Instrumental case with the preposition s (with):

• nitko (no one) -> s kim (with whom) -> ni s kim (with no one)
• ništa (nothing) -> s čim (with what) -> ni s čim (with nothing)

Locative and Genitive Cases

This splitting rule applies to all prepositions across all cases. If you want to talk about finding peace, you might use the Locative preposition o (about):

• ništa -> o čemu -> ni o čemu (about nothing)
• nitko -> o kome -> ni o kome (about no one)

The same structure applies with the Genitive preposition od (from):

• nitko -> od koga -> ni od koga (from no one)

Double Negatives

Don't forget the golden rule of Croatian negatives: double negatives are strictly required. Even though your split pronoun is already negative (ni s kim, ni o čemu), the main verb in your sentence must still be negated with ne.

You can even stack multiple split pronouns in the same sentence, provided the verb remains negative.