Breakdown of Ako avion kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu.
Questions & Answers about Ako avion kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu.
In Croatian, the present tense is very often used in if-clauses for future time, especially in spoken language.
- Ako avion kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu…
literally: If the plane is late, we wait in a quiet place…
but it naturally means: If the plane is late, we will wait…
You can say:
- Ako avion kasni, čekat ćemo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu.
This is also correct and a bit more “explicitly future”, but the original sentence with čekamo sounds completely natural and is very common in everyday speech.
Yes, you could say Kad avion kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu, but there is a nuance:
ako = if (condition, may or may not happen)
Ako avion kasni… → If the plane is late… (it might be on time, it might be late)kad / kada = when/whenever (more certain, repeated/typical situation)
Kad avion kasni… → When(ever) the plane is late… (it does happen from time to time / whenever it happens)
So:
- Ako avion kasni… focuses on the condition.
- Kad avion kasni… is more like a general rule describing what you usually do when this situation occurs.
Avion means airplane / plane and is very common in everyday speech.
Grammatically:
- gender: masculine
- nominative singular: avion
- in the sentence, it is in the nominative as the subject: avion kasni (the plane is late).
There is also a more official/standard Croatian word:
- zrakoplov = also airplane, more common in formal/official language.
- For “airport”, official term is often zračna luka, but aerodrom is still very widely used in speech.
So your sentence could also (more “standardly”) be:
- Ako zrakoplov kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu u zračnoj luci.
Kasniti means to be late, to run late, to be delayed.
In the sentence:
- avion (he/it) + kasni → avion kasni = the plane is late / the plane is delayed.
Present tense conjugation (singular only here):
- ja kasnim – I am late
- ti kasniš – you are late
- on/ona/ono kasni – he/she/it is late
So kasni is 3rd person singular, present tense.
Yes. Both are grammatically correct:
- Ako avion kasni, čekamo…
- Ako kasni avion, čekamo…
The meaning is basically the same: If the plane is late, we (will) wait….
Croatian word order is relatively flexible. Changing word order can affect emphasis or style, but not usually the basic meaning:
- Ako avion kasni… – neutral, standard word order (subject first).
- Ako kasni avion… – slightly more emphasis on the verb kasni (“if it’s late, the plane…”), but in this simple sentence, the difference is minimal.
Čekamo is the present tense form of čekati = to wait.
Conjugation in the present tense (singular/plural):
- ja čekam – I wait
- ti čekaš – you wait
- on/ona/ono čeka – he/she/it waits
- mi čekamo – we wait
- vi čekate – you (pl./formal) wait
- oni/one/ona čekaju – they wait
So čekamo is 1st person plural present → we wait / we are waiting.
In Croatian, the preposition na is often used with places seen as open areas, surfaces, or venues/events:
- na aerodromu – at the airport
- na stanici – at the station
- na kolodvoru – at the (bus/train) terminal
- na koncertu – at a concert
- na poslu – at work
So:
- na aerodromu (with locative case) = at the airport (as a place/area).
U aerodromu would sound odd; u + locative is usually for inside enclosed spaces like rooms, buildings, etc.:
- u kući – in the house
- u zgradi – in the building
An airport is treated more like an “area / complex”, so na aerodromu is the natural choice.
Aerodromu is in the locative singular.
Pattern:
- nominative: aerodrom (airport)
- locative singular: aerodromu
Locative is used mainly after certain prepositions (like na, u, o) to indicate location or about something.
In our sentence:
- na aerodromu = na
- aerodromu (locative) → at the airport.
Na mirnom mjestu literally means “in a quiet place / at a quiet spot”.
Grammatically:
- mjesto = place/spot, neuter noun
- nominative singular: mirno mjesto
- locative singular: mirnom mjestu
- mirnom is the adjective mirno (quiet) in neuter singular locative, agreeing with mjestu.
Because of the preposition na (meaning “on/at” here), mjesto goes into locative:
- na mirnom mjestu = at a quiet place.
So:
- na + mirnom mjestu → preposition na
- locative case.
With mjesto (“place/spot”) the natural preposition for “at/in a (physical) place/spot” is na, not u:
- na mjestu – at the place / on the spot
- na istom mjestu – at the same place
- na mirnom mjestu – in/at a quiet place
U mjestu usually refers to an inhabited place (like a town/village) and is used in different kinds of phrases (e.g. u tom mjestu živi puno ljudi – many people live in that place/town).
In your sentence we clearly mean a spot/area within the airport, so na mirnom mjestu is correct and natural.
In Croatian, a subordinate clause (introduced by ako, kad, jer, etc.) is normally separated by a comma from the main clause.
When the subordinate if-clause comes first, you must use a comma:
- Ako avion kasni, čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu.
If you invert the order (main clause first), in practice the comma is often omitted:
- Čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu ako avion kasni.
So the comma after Ako avion kasni follows a standard punctuation rule for dependent clauses placed at the beginning of the sentence.
Yes, you can say:
- Ako avion bude kasnio, čekamo na mirnom mjestu na aerodromu.
Difference in nuance:
- Ako avion kasni… – present tense, very common in everyday speech, also referring to a future situation.
- Ako avion bude kasnio… – using future-like form (bude
- past participle kasnio); sounds a bit more formal/explicitly future or slightly more “careful”/hypothetical.
Both are correct; the present form (Ako avion kasni) is more frequent in ordinary conversation.