Breakdown of Kad budem pekao ribu, stavit ću ružmarin.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
peći
to bake / to roast, to fry (meat)
staviti
to put
riba
fish
kad
when (temporal)
ružmarin
rosemary
Questions & Answers about Kad budem pekao ribu, stavit ću ružmarin.
Why use budem pekao instead of the standard future tense?
In Croatian, you use Futur II (budem plus the active past participle, like pekao) in subordinate clauses starting with kad (when) or ako (if) to describe an action that happens in the future. The regular future tense (Futur I) is usually not used directly after kad for future events.
Could I just use the present tense pečem instead of budem pekao?
Yes. For imperfective verbs like peći (to bake), native speakers often use the present tense instead of Futur II for future events. Saying Kad pečem ribu... is completely natural and very common in everyday speech.
Why is the verb peći imperfective here, while staviti is perfective?
This reflects how the actions unfold in time. Peći (to bake) is imperfective because baking is an ongoing, background process. Staviti (to put) is perfective because adding the rosemary is a quick, single action that gets completed while the baking is happening.
Why is the final 'i' missing from staviti in stavit ću?
When forming the future tense, if an infinitive ending in -ti comes immediately before the auxiliary verb (ću, ćeš, etc.), the final -i is dropped in both standard writing and speaking. If you flipped the word order, the -i would stay: Ja ću staviti.
Learn Kad budem pekao ribu, stavit ću ružmarin and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free