Question 1

The English translation says "we are going", but there is no word for "we" in the Croatian sentence. Why?

Accepted Answer

In Croatian, the ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The verb ići (to go) takes the ending -mo for "we", becoming idemo. Because the verb itself already shows it's "we", the pronoun mi (we) is usually dropped unless you want to add special emphasis.

Question 2

English uses the continuous tense "are going". Does Croatian have a different verb form for "we go" versus "we are going"?

Accepted Answer

No, Croatian doesn't have a separate "continuous" tense like English. The single present tense verb idemo covers both "we go" and "we are going". The context, especially the word odmah (immediately), makes it clear that the action is happening right now.

Question 3

Could idemo also mean "let's go" in this context?

Accepted Answer

Yes, absolutely! While idemo literally means "we are going", it is also the standard way to say "Let's go!" in Croatian. Depending on the speaker's tone, Idemo odmah can be a simple statement ("We are leaving immediately") or an enthusiastic suggestion ("Let's go right now!").

Question 4

Since this lesson is about motion, if I wanted to say "we are going here", would I still use ovdje?

Accepted Answer

No, you wouldn't. Ovdje is strictly used for a fixed location—it answers the question "where is it?" (The taxi is here). If you want to talk about motion towards a place, answering the question "where to?", Croatian uses a different word: ovamo (to here).

Question 5

Why is "taxi" spelled as taksi?

Accepted Answer

Croatian spells most international loanwords phonetically, meaning they are written exactly as they sound using the Croatian alphabet. Since the English letter "x" makes a "k" plus "s" sound, it is simply written with the letters k and s.

Taksi je ovdje, idemo odmah.

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