Breakdown of U subotu na fakultetu imamo izlet u susjednu zemlju.
Questions & Answers about U subotu na fakultetu imamo izlet u susjednu zemlju.
In Croatian, days of the week used with “on” (on Monday, on Saturday, etc.) are usually expressed with:
- the preposition u
- accusative case
So:
- subota = Saturday (nominative form, dictionary form)
- u subotu = on Saturday (accusative)
You almost always say u subotu, u ponedjeljak, etc., not just the bare day name when you mean on X day in a sentence like this.
Subotu is in the accusative singular.
You can tell because:
- the base form is subota (feminine, ending in -a),
- the accusative singular for most feminine -a nouns is -u → subotu.
Here it’s accusative because of:
- the preposition u used to show time (when? → on Saturday).
Both u and na can translate as “in/at”, but they are used with different types of locations and conventions:
- na fakultetu = at the faculty / at university
This is the standard idiomatic expression in Croatian. - u fakultetu would literally mean inside the faculty building, and is practically never used; it sounds wrong to a native speaker.
So for institutions like fakultet, univerzitet, pošta, škola, Croatian often uses na rather than u:
- na fakultetu – at university
- na pošti – at the post office
- na sudu – at court
Fakultetu is in the locative singular, used after na (and u) when indicating location (where something is).
Pattern:
- Nominative: fakultet
- Locative: (na) fakultetu
Here:
- na fakultetu answers where? → at the faculty / at university,
- so na
- locative is used.
In Croatian, imati (to have) is often used to talk about scheduled events:
- imamo sastanak – we have a meeting
- imamo koncert – we have a concert
- imamo izlet – we have a trip / an excursion
It’s very natural to say imamo izlet for a planned excursion, especially in a school/university context. English might translate this as “we have a trip” or “we’re going on a trip,” but Croatian literally says “we have a trip.”
The subject is implied in the verb.
- The verb imamo is 1st person plural (we).
- In Croatian you usually omit the pronoun when it’s clear from the verb ending.
So:
- English: We have a trip.
- Croatian: Imamo izlet. (the we is understood from -mo)
There is no explicit noun doing the action; it’s just (we) have.
Croatian, like English, can use the present tense to talk about scheduled future events:
- U subotu imamo izlet. – On Saturday we (will) have a trip.
- Sutra u osam imam sastanak. – Tomorrow at eight I (will) have a meeting.
This is very normal and sounds more natural than using a future form here. The time expression (u subotu) makes it clear that it refers to the future.
Literally, u susjednu zemlju = to a neighboring country.
Breaking it down:
- zemlja = country, land (feminine noun)
- zemlju = accusative singular of zemlja
- susjedan = neighboring (adjective)
- susjednu = accusative feminine singular form of the adjective, agreeing with zemlju
Because we have u + direction/motion (to where?), we use accusative:
u + accusative = into / to (motion)
So:
- u susjednu zemlju – to a neighboring country (motion towards)
- u susjednoj zemlji – in a neighboring country (location, no motion; locative).
It’s doing two different jobs:
- U subotu – u + accusative used for time (on Saturday).
- u susjednu zemlju – u + accusative used for direction (to a neighboring country).
Even though it’s the same word in English (“in/to”), Croatian uses u in both roles, and you repeat it because each phrase is separate in meaning:
- when? → u subotu
- where (to)? → u susjednu zemlju
Croatian doesn’t have articles like English a/an or the.
So:
- imamo izlet can mean we have a trip or we have the trip, depending on context.
- u susjednu zemlju can be to a neighboring country or to the neighboring country.
Definiteness (a vs the) is understood from context, word order, and what has been mentioned previously, not from separate words.
Croatian word order is fairly flexible. You can change the order to emphasize different parts, for example:
- U subotu na fakultetu imamo izlet u susjednu zemlju. (neutral as given)
- U subotu imamo izlet u susjednu zemlju na fakultetu.
- Na fakultetu u subotu imamo izlet u susjednu zemlju.
All are grammatically possible, but some may sound more or less natural depending on what you want to emphasize. The original sentence is a very natural, neutral-sounding order.
You see three important patterns:
u + accusative (time)
- u subotu → on Saturday
na + locative (location)
- na fakultetu → at the faculty / at university
u + accusative (direction/motion)
- u susjednu zemlju → to a neighboring country
So this single sentence nicely shows time, location, and direction each with their typical preposition–case pattern.