Questions & Answers about Cijeli dan radim u uredu.
Croatian usually drops subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- radim is 1st person singular of raditi (to work).
- The ending -m tells you the subject is I.
So Cijeli dan radim u uredu. literally just says All day work in (the) office, but it is always understood as I work… or I am working….
You only add ja (I) for emphasis or contrast:
- Ja cijeli dan radim u uredu, a ti si doma.
I work in the office all day, and you’re at home.
cijeli means whole, entire.
It’s an adjective, so it has to agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- dan (day) is masculine singular.
- In this sentence the form is accusative masculine singular, used for duration of time.
For dan, nominative and accusative look the same:
- nominative: (taj) dan je dug – that day is long
- accusative: radim cijeli dan – I work the whole day
So you get cijeli dan (masc. sg. acc.), not cijela (feminine) or cijelo (neuter).
cijeli dan is in the accusative case, used here as an accusative of duration.
Croatian often uses the accusative to say how long something lasts:
- Radim cijeli dan. – I work all day.
- Čekali smo sat vremena. – We waited (for) an hour.
- Spavao je cijelu noć. – He slept all night.
Because dan is an inanimate masculine noun, nominative and accusative are identical in form (dan), which is why it looks like nominative but functions as accusative here.
Both are correct, but there is a nuance:
- cijeli dan – accusative (duration of time)
- Very direct: I work the whole day (from morning to evening).
- cijelog dana – genitive (time within which something happens)
- Often feels a bit more descriptive or stylistically “softer”.
Examples:
Cijeli dan radim u uredu.
I work in the office all day (that’s what I spend the whole day doing).Cijelog dana radim u uredu.
Throughout the day I work in the office / All through the day I’m working in the office.
In everyday speech, cijeli dan is probably more common in this exact kind of sentence, but both are natural.
Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatical:
- Cijeli dan radim u uredu.
- Radim cijeli dan u uredu.
- U uredu cijeli dan radim.
- U uredu radim cijeli dan.
The main difference is emphasis:
- Starting with Cijeli dan emphasizes the length of time.
- Starting with U uredu emphasizes the place.
- Starting with Radim is the most neutral, like English “I work all day in the office.”
In neutral everyday speech, Radim cijeli dan u uredu and Cijeli dan radim u uredu are probably the most common.
radim is present tense, 1st person singular of raditi (to work), which is imperfective.
Croatian has one present form that covers both English “I work” and “I am working”. Context decides:
- Cijeli dan radim u uredu.
Depending on context it can mean:- I am working in the office all day (today), or
- I work in the office all day (as a general fact, on workdays).
If you want to make it clearly habitual, you could add svaki dan:
- Svaki dan cijeli dan radim u uredu.
Every day I work in the office all day.
raditi (to work) – present tense:
- ja radim – I work / I am working
- ti radiš – you (sg., informal) work
- on/ona/ono radi – he/she/it works
- mi radimo – we work
- vi radite – you (pl. or polite) work
- oni/one/ona rade – they work
So in Cijeli dan radim u uredu, radim clearly tells you the subject is I.
The preposition u can take either accusative or locative, depending on meaning:
- u + accusative = movement into (where to?)
- u + locative = location (where?)
Compare:
- Idem u ured. – I’m going to the office. (movement, accusative: ured)
- Radim u uredu. – I work in the office. (location, locative: uredu)
In Cijeli dan radim u uredu, we are talking about being in a place (no movement), so u requires the locative case: uredu.
ured is a regular masculine noun. Singular forms:
- Nominative: ured – (taj) ured je velik – that office is big
- Genitive: ureda – bez ureda – without an office
- Dative: uredu – idem u uredu pomoći? (very rare; normally u ured pomoći)
- Accusative: ured – vidim ured – I see the office
- Vocative: urede – hej, urede! (almost never used)
- Locative: uredu – radim u uredu – I work in the office
- Instrumental: uredom – idem pored ureda – I’m going past the office
So in u uredu, uredu is the locative singular form required by u when it means in/inside (a place).
Yes, but the meaning changes slightly:
- u uredu – in the office (physically inside an office room / space)
- na poslu – at work (at your job, not necessarily literally in an office)
Examples:
Cijeli dan radim u uredu.
I work in the office all day (your workplace is an office).Cijeli dan sam na poslu.
I’m at work all day (could be in a factory, shop, hospital, etc.).
You can combine them if you want to be very specific:
- Cijeli dan sam na poslu, u uredu.
I’m at work all day, in the office.
Yes, some common alternatives:
- čitav dan – practically the same as cijeli dan
- Čitav dan radim u uredu.
- sav dan – also means the whole day, a bit more colloquial/regional in some areas
- Sav dan radim u uredu.
- po cijeli dan – all day long / the whole day (repeatedly)
- Po cijeli dan radim u uredu. – often sounds like it happens regularly or constantly.
cijeli dan is the most neutral and most widely used.
Rough pronunciation guide (stressed syllables in bold):
- Cijeli – CIE-ye-lee (the c is like ts in cats: TSYE-lee)
- dan – like English dahn (short, not dayn)
- radim – RAH-deem
- u – like oo in food
- uredu – OO-reh-doo (stress usually on the first syllable: U-redu)
Together, something like:
TSYE-lee dahn RAH-deem oo OO-reh-doo.