Questions & Answers about Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi.
Ponavljam is the 1st person singular, present tense of the verb ponavljati (to repeat).
Ponavljati is an -ati verb, and its present tense conjugation is:
- ja ponavljam – I repeat / I am repeating
- ti ponavljaš – you repeat (sg., informal)
- on/ona/ono ponavlja – he/she/it repeats
- mi ponavljamo – we repeat
- vi ponavljate – you repeat (pl. or formal)
- oni/one/ona ponavljaju – they repeat
So ponavljam is correct; Croatian doesn’t use -em here because ponavljati follows the -am / -aš / -a pattern typical for -ati verbs.
In Croatian, subject pronouns (like ja = I, ti = you) are usually dropped when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.
- Ponavljam can only mean I repeat, not you repeat or he repeats, because the suffix -am specifically marks 1st person singular.
So:
- Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi. – perfectly natural and standard.
- Ja svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi. – also correct, but ja adds emphasis, like:
- I (as opposed to someone else) repeat new words every day.
You use ja mainly for contrast or emphasis.
Svaki dan literally means every day.
Grammatically:
- svaki = every, each (masculine singular)
- dan = day (masculine singular)
In Croatian, just like in English every day (not every days), svaki is followed by a singular noun:
- svaki dan – every day
- svaka noć – every night
- svaki tjedan – every week
So it’s singular because svaki requires the noun in the singular form. Don’t say svaki dani; that’s incorrect.
Both mean every day, and in most contexts they’re interchangeable.
- svaki dan – very common, neutral, everyday speech
- svakoga dana – a bit more formal/literary, uses the genitive instead of the basic nominative/accusative form
You could think of svakoga dana as slightly more “elevated” or stylistic, but in practice:
- Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi.
- Svakoga dana ponavljam nove riječi.
Both are correct and natural. As a learner, svaki dan is simpler and perfectly fine.
This is about gender, number, and case agreement between the adjective and the noun.
- riječ (word) is feminine in Croatian.
- In the sentence, we’re talking about new words in the plural, as a direct object of the verb ponavljam, so they’re in accusative plural.
For a feminine noun like riječ, the adjective must match:
- nominative singular: nova riječ – a new word
- accusative singular: novu riječ – a new word (object)
- nominative plural: nove riječi – new words (subject)
- accusative plural: nove riječi – new words (object)
Notice that nominative plural and accusative plural look the same here: nove riječi.
Novi is masculine; it would go with a masculine noun:
- novi auto – new car (masculine)
This can be confusing because the spelling riječi appears in more than one form.
The noun:
- singular: riječ – word
- plural nominative: riječi – words
- plural accusative: riječi – words (as a direct object)
In our sentence, nove riječi means new words; it’s plural, and it’s the direct object of ponavljam, so it’s in accusative plural, which happens to be spelled riječi, same as the nominative plural.
So:
- Riječ je teška. – The word is difficult. (singular)
- Riječi su teške. – The words are difficult. (plural nominative)
- Učim nove riječi. – I’m learning new words. (plural accusative)
Nove riječi is in the accusative plural.
Reason: it is the direct object of the verb ponavljam.
- Subject: (implicit) ja – I
- Verb: ponavljam – (I) repeat
- Direct object: nove riječi – new words
In Croatian, direct objects of most verbs are in the accusative case. Because we’re talking about more than one word, it’s accusative plural:
- singular: ponavljam novu riječ – I repeat a new word
- plural: ponavljam nove riječi – I repeat new words
Yes, you can change the word order; Croatian is fairly flexible with this, but it affects emphasis, not the basic meaning.
Possible orders:
Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi.
– Neutral: focus on the habit (every day).Nove riječi ponavljam svaki dan.
– Emphasis on new words (those are what I repeat every day).Ponavljam nove riječi svaki dan.
– Also neutral/natural; mild emphasis on the activity (repeating new words).
The core meaning (I repeat new words every day) stays the same, but the information structure and what you highlight in the sentence changes.
These are two different aspects of the same basic action:
ponavljam – present tense of ponavljati, imperfective aspect
- focuses on the ongoing / repeated / habitual action
- Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi. – I repeat / I’m in the habit of repeating new words every day.
ponovim – 1st person singular of ponoviti, perfective aspect
- focuses on completing the action once
- Ponovit ću nove riječi. – I will repeat the new words (once, to finish the task).
Because the sentence describes a habitual, repeated action, the imperfective form ponavljam is the natural choice.
Yes. Croatian does not have a separate continuous form like English I am repeating vs. I repeat. The same present tense form ponavljam covers both meanings; context tells you which is intended.
For example:
- Sada ponavljam nove riječi. – Right now I am repeating new words.
- Svaki dan ponavljam nove riječi. – I repeat new words every day.
In both cases the verb form is ponavljam; the adverb (sada, svaki dan) gives the time frame.
Key points:
- svaki – sv is pronounced together: s
- v, like svah-kee
- dan – like English dahn (short, clear a)
- ponavljam – roughly po-NAH-vlyam
- lj is a palatal sound, like ll in Spanish llama (in many dialects) or similar to the lli in English million.
- nove – NO-veh
- riječi – roughly RIE-eh-chee or ree-EH-chee
- r is trilled or tapped
- je is pronounced like ye
- č is like ch in church
Stress pattern can vary a bit by region, but a safe learner version:
- SVa-ki dan po-NAV-ljam NO-ve RI-je-či (with a noticeable stress on the capitalized syllables, especially on NAV and RI).