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Questions & Answers about Čekamo zadnji vlak.
What form of the verb is čekamo, and what does it correspond to in English?
Čekamo is the present tense, 1st person plural form of the verb čekati (to wait).
- čekam – I wait / I am waiting
- čekaš – you (sg.) wait
- čeka – he/she/it waits
- čekamo – we wait / we are waiting
- čekate – you (pl./formal) wait
- čekaju – they wait
In English it corresponds to both we wait and we are waiting (Croatian doesn’t have a separate continuous tense).
Why is there no word for we in the sentence?
Croatian usually drops subject pronouns, because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- čekamo already tells you it is we who are waiting.
- You would only add mi čekamo for emphasis or contrast, like: Mi čekamo zadnji vlak, a oni idu pješice. – We are waiting for the last train, but they are going on foot.
Why is there no word for for, even though in English we say “wait for the last train”?