Purpose clauses (kako bi)

Expressing Purpose with "kako bi"

While you can express purpose using da + present tense, Croatian also uses a slightly more formal structure: kako combined with the conditional mood. This is very common in written Croatian and professional environments like business and banking.

To form the conditional mood, you need a special set of helper verbs (the aorist tense of biti) paired with the active past participle (the L-participle, which you already use for the standard past tense).

Here is the helper verb you need for each person:

To say "in order to" or "so that," simply string together kako, the correct helper verb, and your L-participle.

Third-Person Statements and Changing Subjects

You will notice in the table above that the helper verb for ti, on/ona/ono, and oni/one/ona is exactly the same: bi. Because of this, third-person purpose clauses are often referred to simply as kako bi clauses.

Just like with our previous purpose structures, you can use kako + conditional whether the subject stays the same throughout the sentence or changes entirely. When the subject changes, make sure the helper verb matches the new subject.

Negation and Banking Vocabulary

This formal structure pairs perfectly with financial terminology like securing a loan or managing interest rates.

If you need to express a negative purpose ("in order not to"), simply place the negative particle ne immediately before the helper verb.