Temporal Boundaries: od... do...
To express continuous periods of time, Croatian uses the prepositions od (from) and do (to / until). Both take the Genitive case.
Hours and Times of Day
When stating a timeframe, numbers like osam (eight) and četiri (four) don't change form, but nouns like jutro (morning) and večer (evening) take standard Genitive endings.
| The morning shift works from eight to four o'clock. | Jutarnja smjena radi od osam do četiri sata. |
| The night shift lasts from ten in the evening to six in the morning. | Noćna smjena traje od deset navečer do šest ujutro. |
| The service is available from morning to evening. | Služba je dostupna od jutra do večeri. |
Days of the Week
Days of the week also take the Genitive. For example, ponedjeljak (Monday) becomes ponedjeljka, and petak (Friday) becomes petka (dropping the fleeting "a").
| The regular service is open from Monday to Friday. | Redovna služba je otvorena od ponedjeljka do petka. |
| The doctors were on duty from Friday to Sunday. | Liječnici su bili dežurni od petka do nedjelje. |
| Are you on duty from Monday to Wednesday? | Jeste li dežurni od ponedjeljka do srijede? |
Discussing Shifts and Availability
When discussing schedules and availability, you will frequently use the word for a work shift:
| shift | smjena |
Adjectives describing shifts—such as jutarnji (morning), večernji (evening), and noćni (night)—must agree with the noun they modify. Combine these with od... do... to outline when someone is on duty (dežuran) or a service is available (dostupan).
| They are constantly available, that's why they work in shifts. | Oni su neprestano dostupni, zato rade u smjenama. |
| Why do they have so many night shifts from Wednesday to Sunday? | Zašto imaju toliko noćnih smjena od srijede do nedjelje? |
| The evening service is available from six to midnight. | Večernja služba je dostupna od šest do ponoći. |