Breakdown of On danas govori bolje nego jučer.
Questions & Answers about On danas govori bolje nego jučer.
In Croatian, the subject pronoun (on = he) is usually dropped, because the verb ending already shows the person:
- On govori. = He speaks.
- Govori. = (He/She) speaks.
So:
- Danas govori bolje nego jučer. is fully correct and very natural.
You use on only when you want to emphasize he in contrast to someone else:
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer. = He (as opposed to someone else) speaks better today than yesterday.
So on is not grammatically required; it’s there for emphasis or clarity.
Croatian doesn’t make a strict distinction between simple present and present continuous like English does.
The present form govori can mean:
- He speaks (a general habit)
- He is speaking (right now, in this situation)
So:
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer.
can be translated as either:- He speaks better today than yesterday.
- He is speaking better today than yesterday.
Context (and sometimes extra words) tells you whether it’s about a current situation or a general tendency.
These three verbs are related to speaking but are not interchangeable:
govoriti = to speak / to talk (more general, can be about ability or act of speaking)
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer. – He speaks/is speaking better today than yesterday.
pričati = to tell, to narrate, to chat (focus on telling a story or chatting)
- On danas priča bolje nego jučer. – He tells stories / chats better today than yesterday.
This sounds like you’re talking about his storytelling style.
- On danas priča bolje nego jučer. – He tells stories / chats better today than yesterday.
reći / kazati = to say (a specific statement)
- On danas kaže bolje nego jučer. – feels odd; kazati/reći are usually about specific things said, not general speaking quality.
For the idea of “speaks better (in general)” the natural verb is govori.
Bolje is the comparative form of the adverb dobro (well).
- dobro = well
- bolje = better (in the sense of more well)
Compare:
- On govori dobro. – He speaks well.
- On govori bolje. – He speaks better.
It can also function as a comparative of the adjective dobar (good) in some structures, but in this sentence it’s clearly an adverb modifying govori (how he speaks).
Croatian, like English, normally forms comparatives with a special word, not with “more + adjective/adverb”.
- dobro → bolje (well → better)
- brzo → brže (fast → faster)
- lijepo → ljepše (nicely → more nicely)
Using više dobro is incorrect here. The standard pattern for comparisons is:
- bolje
- nego
- comparison point
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer. – He speaks better today than yesterday.
- comparison point
- nego
Both nego and od can appear in comparisons, but their use depends on structure:
With a simple adverb/adjective followed directly by what you compare to, nego is very common and natural:
- bolje nego jučer – better than yesterday
- brže nego prije – faster than before
od is more typical with nouns/pronouns in the genitive:
- On govori bolje od mene. – He speaks better than me.
- Ona je viša od njega. – She is taller than him.
You would not say bolje od jučer in this simple adverbial comparison; bolje nego jučer is the natural form.
You sometimes see nego što introducing a full clause, but then you normally include a verb:
- On danas govori bolje nego što je govorio jučer.
= He speaks today better than he spoke yesterday.
Here:
- nego = than
- što = what/that (here a conjunction-like word introducing the clause)
If you’re just comparing with a simple adverb jučer (“yesterday”), without a full clause, you do not add što:
- ✅ bolje nego jučer
- ❌ bolje nego što jučer (incomplete)
So your original simple sentence correctly omits što.
Danas (today) and jučer (yesterday) are time adverbs, not nouns. Adverbs in Croatian:
- do not take articles (there are no articles in Croatian at all)
- usually do not take prepositions
- are not declined for case like nouns
So:
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer. – He speaks better today than yesterday.
You only use prepositions when you involve nouns (days in noun form):
- u ponedjeljak – on Monday
- prošlog tjedna – last week
But danas and jučer stand alone as adverbs.
Croatian word order is flexible, but changes in order can slightly change the focus or emphasis.
All of these are grammatically possible:
On danas govori bolje nego jučer.
– Neutral with slight emphasis on on (he, not someone else).Danas on govori bolje nego jučer.
– Stronger emphasis on on: Today, he speaks better than yesterday (maybe in contrast to others).Danas govori bolje nego jučer.
– Most neutral and natural if the subject is already known from context.On govori danas bolje nego jučer.
– Also possible, but the rhythm is a bit less natural; focus shifts slightly to danas and bolje.
Moving words is mostly about emphasis, not about changing the basic meaning. The original sentence is fine, but Danas govori bolje nego jučer is very typical in everyday speech.
Yes, you can say:
- On danas govori bolje nego jučer.
- On danas bolje govori nego jučer.
Both are grammatically correct and mean essentially the same thing.
- govori bolje – more neutral; adverb right after the verb.
- bolje govori – slightly emphasizes bolje (the improvement in how he speaks).
Croatian allows adverbs like bolje both before and after the verb, with only subtle differences in emphasis.
In the present tense, Croatian verbs do not change form for gender, only for person and number:
- on govori – he speaks
- ona govori – she speaks
- ono govori – it speaks
All use govori (3rd person singular).
Gender only shows up in:
past tense:
- On je govorio. – He spoke.
- Ona je govorila. – She spoke.
some adjectives/participles, etc.
So in On danas govori bolje nego jučer, the verb form govori is the same whether the subject is on (he) or ona (she).