Breakdown of Sljedeći tjedan idem na konferenciju o jezicima u Zagrebu.
Questions & Answers about Sljedeći tjedan idem na konferenciju o jezicima u Zagrebu.
In Croatian, it’s very common to use the present tense to talk about the near future, especially with a clear time expression like sljedeći tjedan (next week).
- Sljedeći tjedan idem na konferenciju...
= Next week I’m going to a conference...
You could also say:
- Sljedeći tjedan ću ići na konferenciju...
This is also correct but sounds a bit heavier and more formal. In everyday speech, the simple present idem is more natural when the future time is clear from context.
Sljedeći tjedan is in the nominative case and functions as a time expression, similar to an adverb. Croatian often uses the bare nominative of time words for “when?”:
- Ove subote idem u kino. – This Saturday I’m going to the cinema.
- Prošlu godinu sam bio u Italiji. – Last year I was in Italy.
You could grammatically say sljedećeg tjedna, but that usually appears in different structures (e.g. tijekom sljedećeg tjedna – during next week). In your sentence, sljedeći tjedan as a fixed time phrase is the natural choice.
Croatian does not have articles like English a/an or the. The noun form and context tell you whether it’s specific or general.
- Idem na konferenciju.
can mean I’m going to a conference or I’m going to the conference.
If you want to stress that it’s a specific, known conference, you add more information:
- Idem na onu konferenciju o jezicima. – I’m going to that language conference.
- Idem na međunarodnu konferenciju o jezicima. – I’m going to the international conference on languages.
Both na and u can mean something like “to” or “in,” but they’re used differently.
For events, activities, and institutions, Croatian usually uses na:
- ići na posao – go to work
- ići na koncert – go to a concert
- ići na konferenciju – go to a conference
U is more physical “inside”:
- ići u školu – go to school (building or institution)
- ići u kino – go to the cinema
- u Zagrebu – in Zagreb
So na konferenciju is the idiomatic choice because a conference is seen as an event you “go to” rather than a container you go “into.”
Konferenciju is the accusative singular of konferencija (a feminine noun ending in -a).
The preposition na can take either accusative (for motion towards) or locative (for location):
Motion (where to?): Idem na konferenciju. – I’m going to the conference.
→ na- accusative (konferenciju)
Location (where?): Sam na konferenciji. – I am at the conference.
→ na- locative (konferenciji)
In your sentence we have motion (“going to”), so we need the accusative: na konferenciju.
The preposition o (“about”) in Croatian always takes the locative case.
- o jeziku – about the language (singular, locative)
- o jezicima – about (the) languages (plural, locative)
Declension of jezik (language) – singular vs plural (relevant forms):
- Nominative: jezik / jezici
- Locative: o jeziku / o jezicima
Since the conference is about languages in general, the plural locative jezicima is used.
- o jeziku = about the language (one specific language, or language in general as a single concept)
- o jezicima = about languages (multiple languages, or the topic of different languages)
So:
- konferencija o jeziku – a conference about (the) language (e.g. the Croatian language, language as a phenomenon)
- konferencija o jezicima – a conference about languages (e.g. multilingualism, several languages, comparative linguistics)
Your sentence suggests a conference dealing with multiple languages or language in a broad/multilingual way.
This is the same motion vs. location distinction:
u Zagreb (actually: u Zagreb → strictly speaking it would be u Zagreb in spoken usage, but the standard is u Zagreb with accusative Zagreb, no ending) is used with motion (where to?), but typically you see:
- Idem u Zagreb. – I’m going to Zagreb.
→ u- accusative (Zagreb)
- Idem u Zagreb. – I’m going to Zagreb.
u Zagrebu is used with location (where?):
- Živim u Zagrebu. – I live in Zagreb.
- Konferencija je u Zagrebu. – The conference is in Zagreb.
→ u- locative (Zagrebu)
In your sentence, u Zagrebu describes where the conference takes place, so it’s locative.
Grammatically, u Zagrebu most naturally modifies konferenciju:
- Idem [na konferenciju [o jezicima] [u Zagrebu]].
→ I’m going to the conference (about languages) in Zagreb.
So the meaning is that the conference is in Zagreb.
If you wanted to say clearly that you are going to Zagreb, you would more likely say:
- Sljedeći tjedan idem u Zagreb na konferenciju o jezicima.
→ Next week I’m going to Zagreb for a conference on languages.
Yes. Word order in Croatian is quite flexible, especially for time expressions. All of these are possible, with slightly different emphasis:
- Sljedeći tjedan idem na konferenciju o jezicima u Zagrebu.
- Idem sljedeći tjedan na konferenciju o jezicima u Zagrebu.
- Idem na konferenciju o jezicima u Zagrebu sljedeći tjedan.
The most neutral and common is the original version, with the time expression at the beginning.
Both can mean “next” in time expressions and are usually interchangeable in everyday speech:
- sljedeći tjedan / idući tjedan – next week
- sljedeće godine / iduće godine – next year
In modern standard Croatian:
- sljedeći is more widespread and neutral.
- idući is also correct and common, but in some contexts can sound slightly more formal or stylistically marked.
For a learner, you can safely treat sljedeći and idući as synonyms in time expressions.
Yes, and it’s a subtle but real difference:
sljedeći (with -dje-) is the adjective meaning “next” in a sequence of time or items:
- sljedeći tjedan – next week
- sljedeća stranica – the next page
slijedeći (with -ijede-) is the present active participle of slijediti (“to follow”), so it literally means “following” (as an action):
- slijedeći upute, završio je posao – following the instructions, he finished the job.
Many native speakers mix them in writing, but in careful standard usage, sljedeći tjedan is the correct form for “next week.”