Questions & Answers about Ovaj tjedan imam težak zadatak.
Formally, Ovaj tjedan is an adverbial time expression in the accusative (masculine inanimate accusative looks the same as nominative: ovaj). You can also say Ovog(a) tjedna (genitive) with the meaning during this week. Both are common:
- Ovaj tjedan radim puno. = This week I work a lot.
- Ovog tjedna radim puno. = I’m working a lot during this week. Using U ovom tjednu is possible but less natural in everyday speech; Za ovaj tjedan means for this week (allocation/plan).
Croatian has no articles. Težak zadatak already means a/one difficult task from context. If you want to stress the number one, you can add jedan:
- Imam težak zadatak. = I have a difficult task.
- Imam jedan težak zadatak. = I have one (single) difficult task.
Adjectives agree with the noun in gender, number, and case. Zadatak is masculine singular (and here accusative = nominative in form), so the adjective is masculine singular: težak.
- Masculine: težak zadatak
- Feminine: teška knjiga
- Neuter: teško pitanje Note: Although it looks nominative, both the adjective and noun are actually in the accusative as the direct object of imam.
Imam is 1st person singular present of imati (to have). It expresses possession or something scheduled/assigned. Present conjugation:
- ja imam
- ti imaš
- on/ona/ono ima
- mi imamo
- vi imate
- oni/one/ona imaju Don’t confuse imati (to have) with morati (to have to, must). For obligation: Moram obaviti težak zadatak.
Both, depending on the noun:
- Physical weight: teška torba = a heavy bag
- Difficulty: težak zadatak = a difficult task
- Figurative: težak čovjek = a difficult person; težak dan = a hard day Synonyms for difficult: zahtjevan, naporan (demanding, strenuous), kompliciran (complicated).
- tjedan: pronounce tj as a cluster like t + y in yes: roughly “TYE-dahn”.
- ž: like the s in measure or the g in mirage: te-žak.
Yes, Croatian allows flexible word order; information structure changes:
- Ovaj tjedan imam težak zadatak. (sets the timeframe first)
- Imam težak zadatak ovaj tjedan. (neutral; adds timeframe at the end)
- Težak zadatak imam ovaj tjedan. (emphasizes the task’s difficulty) All are acceptable; choose based on what you want to emphasize.
They’re demonstratives indicating distance (physical or contextual):
- ovaj = this (near me/now): ovaj tjedan = this week
- taj = that (near you or previously mentioned): taj tjedan = that week (we’ve been talking about)
- onaj = that over there/that one (far or remote in time): onaj tjedan = that (distant) week
Teško is neuter singular or an adverb (hard/difficultly). You need the masculine singular adjective to match zadatak, so težak zadatak. Examples:
- Teško je. = It’s hard. (impersonal, neuter)
- On radi teško. = He works hard. (adverb)
Zadatak is masculine (inanimate) with a slightly irregular plural. Key forms:
- Singular: N/Acc zadatak, G zadatka, D/L zadatku, I zadatkom
- Plural: N zadaci (also acceptable: zadatci), G zadataka, D/L/I zadacima, Acc zadatke Examples:
- To su teški zadaci. (Those are difficult tasks.)
- Rješavam zadatke. (I’m solving tasks/exercises.)
With a positive sentence, the direct object of imati is normally in the accusative: Imam težak zadatak. Under negation, Croatian often uses the genitive (the “genitive of negation”): Nemam teškog zadatka. This is especially common with imati. With mass/uncountable nouns it’s obligatory: Nemam posla (not ×Nemam posao).
Yes. With time expressions like ovaj tjedan, the present can refer to what’s scheduled/true in the (near) future: Ovaj tjedan imam težak zadatak. If you want explicit future, use ću + infinitive:
- Ovaj tjedan ću imati težak zadatak.
Yes, za + accusative means for (allocated/planned for) this week. It emphasizes assignment or purpose:
- Za ovaj tjedan imam težak zadatak. = I have a difficult task for this week.