Breakdown of Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište.
Questions & Answers about Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište.
Krenemo is 1st person plural of krenuti, which means to set off / to start moving / to depart.
It focuses on the moment of departure.
- Ako krenemo ranije ≈ If we set off earlier / if we leave earlier.
- ići (idemo) = to go in general, without stressing the start.
- odemo (from otići) = to leave / to go away, often emphasizing leaving a place, sometimes with a sense of going and not (immediately) coming back.
In this sentence, krenemo is natural because you are talking about setting off to get somewhere on time. Ako idemo ranije would be understood, but less idiomatic; Ako odemo ranije can work, but it emphasizes leaving wherever you are rather than the act of setting off for the theatre.
Morphologically, krenemo is present tense, 1st person plural of krenuti, which is a perfective verb.
With perfective verbs in Croatian, the present form usually refers to the future, not to a present ongoing action.
So Ako krenemo ranije literally is a present form, but it actually means If we (will) set off earlier / If we set off earlier (in the future).
This is normal and very common: perfective present is the standard way to express a single, completed future action, especially in conditional and time clauses.
Both ako and kad can be translated as when or if, but they differ in nuance:
- ako = if, expresses a condition that may or may not happen.
- kad = when, usually something that is expected or seen as more certain/regular.
In Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište, the speaker is presenting it as a condition: If we do this, then that will happen.
Kad krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište sounds more like When we leave earlier, we (always) arrive on time – more like a general rule or expectation.
Stići ćemo is Future I (simple future) of stići (to arrive), 1st person plural.
Future I is formed with:
- a form of htjeti used as a clitic (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će)
- the infinitive (stići)
So:
- stići ću – I will arrive
- stići ćeš – you will arrive
- stići će – he/she/it will arrive
- stići ćemo – we will arrive
- stići ćete – you (pl) will arrive
- stići će – they will arrive
In speech you might also hear forms like stignut ću, but stići ću / stići ćemo is very common and standard.
Both are grammatically possible, but they follow different word-order rules:
- In neutral sentences without an explicit subject, the future auxiliary (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će) behaves like a clitic and tends to appear in second position in the clause.
- In Stići ćemo na vrijeme, the first stressed word is stići, so ćemo comes right after it: stići ćemo.
If you add an explicit subject mi:
- Mi ćemo stići na vrijeme u kazalište. – very natural and often preferred with an explicit subject.
Without mi, the most neutral version is exactly what you have:
- Stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište.
Ćemo stići at the very beginning of a clause (with nothing before it) is not natural; the clitic almost never stands first.
In Croatian, a comma is normally used between a subordinate clause and the main clause when the subordinate clause comes first.
Here:
- Ako krenemo ranije = conditional (subordinate) clause
- stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište = main clause
Because the if-clause (Ako…) comes before the main clause, you write a comma:
- Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište.
If the order were reversed, you would usually not use a comma: - Stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište ako krenemo ranije.
Literally, na vrijeme means onto/into time, but idiomatically it corresponds exactly to English on time.
- stići na vrijeme – to arrive on time
- doći na vrijeme – to come on time
- biti na vrijeme – to be on time
It’s the standard way to say on time in Croatian, and you use it very broadly in this sense.
There isn’t a more literal alternative in normal speech; na vrijeme is the idiomatic expression you should learn.
The preposition u takes different cases depending on whether it expresses:
- movement into something → accusative
- location in something → locative
In the sentence:
- stići ćemo u kazalište = we will arrive into the theatre (movement → accusative)
If you just stated location, you’d use locative:
- Sjedimo u kazalištu. – We are sitting in the theatre.
So:
- u kazalište (accusative) – going to / into the theatre
- u kazalištu (locative) – being in the theatre
You could, but the meaning changes slightly:
- stići u kazalište – arrive in/at the theatre, with the idea of reaching the place and going in.
- stići do kazališta – arrive up to the theatre, reaching it as a point or limit; you might or might not go inside.
In everyday talk about going to see a performance, u kazalište is more natural, because you intend to go into the building, not just up to it.
Both kazalište and teatar mean theatre.
- kazalište is the more common, standard, native Slavic word.
- teatar is taken from international terminology (like English theatre), often used in names of theatre companies or to sound a bit more artsy or technical.
In this sentence, kazalište is perfectly normal and probably the default word you should learn and use in general contexts.
The subject is implied in the verb endings:
- krenemo – we set off (1st person plural)
- stići ćemo – we will arrive (1st person plural)
Croatian normally omits subject pronouns (like ja, ti, mi) unless you want to emphasize or contrast:
- Mi krenemo ranije, ali oni uvijek kasne. – We leave earlier, but they are always late.
So:
- Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište. – natural and normal.
- Ako mi krenemo ranije, mi ćemo stići na vrijeme u kazalište. – grammatical, but sounds emphatic or contrastive.
This form (Ako ćemo krenuti…) is not wrong in all contexts, but it is not the neutral, standard way to express this kind of condition.
In Croatian, in if-clauses about the future, the usual pattern is:
- present (often perfective) in the if-clause
- future in the main clause
So the natural version is:
- Ako krenemo ranije, stići ćemo na vrijeme u kazalište.
Ako ćemo krenuti ranije… can be used when you are emphasizing intention or planning (if we are going to leave earlier), but for a learner you should stick to Ako krenemo… as the normal pattern.
Ranije is the comparative form of the adverb rano (early), so it means earlier.
- rano – early
- Moramo krenuti rano. – We have to leave early.
- ranije – earlier (than some reference time)
- Moramo krenuti ranije. – We have to leave earlier.
Prije is also an adverb meaning before / earlier, but it’s used differently:
- Prije smo krenuli kasnije. – Before / Earlier (in the past), we used to leave later.
- Dođi prije mene. – Come before me.
In this sentence, ranije is correct, because you mean earlier (than usual / than planned).