Breakdown of Posudit ću knjige danas i vratiti ih u petak.
Questions & Answers about Posudit ću knjige danas i vratiti ih u petak.
Croatian Future I is formed with the present of htjeti as an enclitic auxiliary (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će) + the infinitive. When the infinitive comes before the auxiliary, it drops its final -i:
- Posudit ću (from posuditi)
- Vratit će (from vratiti)
If the auxiliary comes first, the infinitive keeps -i:
- Ja ću posuditi
- On će vratiti
Writing Posuditi ću is nonstandard in Croatian.
The one auxiliary ću can scope over both coordinated infinitives. That’s why you can say:
- Posudit ću knjige danas i vratiti ih u petak.
You may repeat the auxiliary for symmetry or clarity:
- Posudit ću knjige danas i vratit ću ih u petak.
Both are correct. If you repeat it, the infinitive before ću again drops final -i: vratit ću.
- ih = unstressed 3rd person plural object pronoun (accusative/genitive), here meaning them, referring back to knjige.
- Clitics like ih tend to sit in second position within their clause.
- Without repeating the auxiliary: … i vratiti ih u petak (clitic follows the first stressed word, here vratiti).
- With the auxiliary repeated: … i vratit ću ih u petak (inside the clitic cluster the auxiliary precedes object clitics). Starting a clause with ih (e.g., i ih vratiti) is not standard.
For days of the week meaning on [day], Croatian uses u + accusative:
- u petak = on Friday
Related time expressions:
- do petka = by Friday (deadline)
- petkom = on Fridays (habitually)
Using na petak for a day is not idiomatic.
Perfective verbs (posuditi, vratiti) present single, completed events (borrow once, return once), which fits the plan. Imperfectives (posuđivati, vraćati) express ongoing/repeated actions:
- Svakog petka vraćam knjige. (habit)
- Danas ću posuditi knjige. (one-time act)
Yes, Croatian word order is flexible (within clitic-placement rules). Examples:
- Danas ću posuditi knjige i u petak ću ih vratiti.
- Knjige ću posuditi danas, a vratit ću ih u petak.
- U petak ću ih vratiti. Avoid placing clitics in the wrong spot (e.g., not U petak ih ću vratiti).
Both, depending on complements:
- posuditi što od koga = borrow something from someone (e.g., Posudit ću knjige od knjižnice.)
- posuditi komu što = lend something to someone (e.g., Posudit ću nekome knjige.) Context and added phrases disambiguate. Synonyms you might see: zajmiti/pozajmiti (often for lending/borrowing money), but posuditi is the common choice for books.
- ću is pronounced like a soft t-chu (a palatalized ch); it’s lighter than English ch.
- ć is a softer sound than č. Roughly: ć ≈ very soft t-ch, č ≈ harder ch. Don’t over-pronounce ću like choo.
No. In Croatian you normally do not put a comma before i when simply coordinating two predicates with the same subject:
- Posudit ću … i vratiti … A comma may appear if clauses are heavier or subjects differ.
Only if you repeat the noun. You need either the pronoun or the noun for the object:
- Correct: … i vratiti ih u petak.
- Also correct: … i vratiti knjige u petak.
- Not good: … i vratiti u petak. (object missing)
That spelling (Posudiću) is standard in Serbian. Standard Croatian writes the auxiliary separately and shortens the infinitive before it:
- Croatian: Posudit ću
- Serbian: Posudiću
Sometimes.
- Imperfective present for scheduled/planned future: Vraćam ih u petak. (I’m returning them on Friday.)
- Perfective present typically implies immediate future or is stylistic; Vratim ih u petak is unusual in neutral speech. For clear future intention, Vratit ću ih u petak is best.
Inside the clitic cluster, the auxiliary comes first, then other clitics in a fixed order. For your example:
- Vratit ću ti ih u petak. (I’ll return them to you on Friday.) Order: ću (aux) + dative (ti) + accusative (ih).