Learn Croatian: S vremenom će zglobovi i kralježnica manje boljeti. - With time, the joints and spine will hurt less.

Vrijeme belongs to a special group of neuter nouns that add an -n- to their stem in most grammatical cases. When we use the Instrumental case after the preposition s (with), we take this expanded stem (vremen-) and add the standard neuter Instrumental ending -om.

What happened to the -ije- from vrijeme when it changed to vremenom?

In Croatian, a long ije sound often shortens to e when a word gets longer. Because adding the -n- and a case ending adds extra syllables, the root vowel naturally shifts. This is why vrijeme becomes vremena, vremenu, and vremenom.

Why is the future tense word će in the second position, so far away from the main verb boljeti?

Će is an enclitic, meaning it is a weak word that strictly belongs in the second logical position of the sentence. The phrase S vremenom counts as the first block of information. The infinitive boljeti completes the future tense, but it is perfectly normal for it to sit at the end of the sentence after the subjects and adverbs.

The subject includes joints (zglobovi). Why does zglob get an extra -ov- in the plural?