Breakdown of Stigli smo u zadnji čas.
stići
to arrive
zadnji
last (final in a sequence)
čas
moment (u zadnji čas = at the last moment)
Questions & Answers about Stigli smo u zadnji čas.
Why does the phrase use čas instead of vrijeme or trenutak?
While vrijeme means time and trenutak means moment, u zadnji čas is a fixed idiom in Croatian that translates perfectly to at the last minute or in the nick of time. In modern Croatian, the word čas is mostly kept alive in everyday speech through set phrases like this one or svaki čas (any moment now).
Why is u zadnji čas in the accusative case here, rather than the locative case?
The preposition u takes the accusative case for time expressions indicating exactly when something happens, just like saying u ponedjeljak (on Monday). It only takes the locative case for static physical locations. Because čas is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form looks exactly like its nominative dictionary form.
Could I use the word posljednji instead of zadnji here?
Yes, you can. U posljednji čas is completely correct and very commonly used. Posljednji and zadnji both mean last. While some strict grammarians argue posljednji is better for the final item in a sequence of time and zadnji refers to physical space (the one in the back), in everyday speech they are completely interchangeable here.
Why do we use the perfective verb stići (here as stigli) instead of its imperfective counterpart?
The imperfective form is stizati (to be arriving). We use the perfective verb stići here because the arrival was a single, completed action that happened at that specific final moment, rather than an ongoing or repeated process.
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