Questions & Answers about Nitko danas ne dolazi u kino.
In Croatian (and many other Slavic languages), double negation is the normal grammatical rule, not a mistake.
Negative pronouns like nitko (nobody), ništa (nothing), nikad (never) require the verb to be in the negative form as well (with ne).
So Nitko ne dolazi literally looks like “Nobody not comes,” but it just means “Nobody comes / Nobody is coming.”
- tko = who (interrogative pronoun)
- nitko = nobody / no one (negative pronoun)
Croatian often forms negative pronouns by adding ni- to the question word:
- tko → nitko (who → nobody)
- što → ništa (what → nothing)
- kad(a) → nikad(a) (when → never).
Nitko is the standard form in Croatian.
Niko is common in some dialects and in Serbian/Bosnian, but in standard Croatian you should use nitko.
They mean the same thing (nobody), but nitko is what you’ll see in textbooks and formal writing for Croatian.
Croatian is a pro-drop language, which means subject pronouns are usually omitted when the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.
The form dolazi is 3rd person singular (“he/she/it comes”), and nitko already tells you who it is (or rather, that it’s nobody).
So Nitko ne dolazi is complete; adding a pronoun would be wrong or at least very unnatural here.
Dolazi is the present tense of the verb dolaziti (to come, to be coming).
In English, depending on context, this can correspond to either “comes” or “is coming”.
So Nitko danas ne dolazi can be translated as “Nobody comes to the cinema today” or more naturally “Nobody is coming to the cinema today.”
Dolaziti (imperfective) focuses on the process or an ongoing/scheduled event (“is coming / comes”).
Doći (perfective) focuses on the completed arrival (“will come / to arrive”).
- Nitko danas ne dolazi u kino. = Nobody is (scheduled / expected) to come today.
- Nitko danas neće doći u kino. = Nobody will come (nobody will end up arriving) today.
Both are possible; the imperfective present is common for plans and schedules.
Kino is in the accusative case here.
With verbs of motion towards somewhere (go, come, enter), Croatian uses u + accusative:
- ići u kino – to go to the cinema
- doći u školu – to come to (into) school
If you mean being located in a place (no movement), you usually use u + locative:
- u kinu – in the cinema
So dolazi u kino = “is coming to the cinema.”
Yes. Word order in Croatian is flexible, and adverbs of time like danas can move around.
All of these are grammatical and natural, with only slight changes in emphasis:
- Nitko danas ne dolazi u kino. (neutral, common)
- Danas nitko ne dolazi u kino. (emphasis on today)
- Nitko ne dolazi danas u kino. (emphasis on today at the end)
The basic meaning stays the same: nobody is coming today.
Both u and na can mean “to” (with motion), but which one you use depends on the noun and convention.
For kino, the natural choice is u: ići u kino, doći u kino.
Common patterns:
- u: u školu (to school), u grad (to the city), u sobu (into the room)
- na: na posao (to work), na koncert (to a concert), na more (to the seaside)
You usually just learn which preposition goes with each noun.
You would say: Netko danas dolazi u kino.
- netko = someone / somebody
And notice: with netko, you do not use ne on the verb: - Nitko ne dolazi. (Nobody is coming.)
- Netko dolazi. (Somebody is coming.)
No, in standard Croatian that would be ungrammatical.
With negative pronouns like nitko, ništa, nikad, the verb must also be negated with ne:
- Nitko ne dolazi u kino. ✅
- Nitko dolazi u kino. ❌
This is the rule of negative concord in Croatian.
You would normally say: Nitko danas nije došao u kino.
- nije došao = did not come (3rd person singular, perfect tense of doći)
You still keep the nitko + negated verb pattern: - Nitko nije došao. – Nobody came.
- Nitko danas nije došao u kino. – Nobody came to the cinema today.