Questions & Answers about Putnik ide autobusom u grad.
Croatian has no articles at all, so it doesn’t use words like a/an or the.
The bare nouns putnik and grad can mean:
- putnik → a passenger / the passenger / a traveler / the traveler
- grad → a city / the city / (the) town
Whether you translate with a or the in English depends only on context, not on anything in the Croatian form.
Autobusom is the instrumental singular of autobus (bus).
- Nominative: autobus – a bus / the bus
- Instrumental: autobusom – with a bus / by bus
Croatian uses the instrumental case to show means or instrument, including means of transport.
So:
- ići autobusom = to go by bus
- ići vlakom = to go by train
- ići avionom = to go by plane
The ending -om on autobusom signals that instrumental meaning.
Croatian uses different cases with u depending on whether it’s movement or location:
u + accusative (u grad) → movement into something
- Putnik ide u grad. = The passenger is going to (into) the city.
u + locative (u gradu) → location in something
- Putnik je u gradu. = The passenger is in the city.
So u grad (accusative) answers “Where to?” (direction), while u gradu (locative) answers “Where (at)?” (position).
Ide is:
- 3rd person singular
- present tense
- of the verb ići (to go).
Basic present-tense forms of ići:
- ja idem – I go / am going
- ti ideš – you go
- on/ona/ono ide – he/she/it goes
- mi idemo – we go
- vi idete – you (pl./formal) go
- oni/one/ona idu – they go
So ide simply means (he/she/it) goes / is going.
Yes, you can change the order; Croatian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically fine:
- Putnik ide autobusom u grad.
- Putnik ide u grad autobusom.
- Autobusom putnik ide u grad.
- U grad putnik ide autobusom.
The basic meaning is the same: The passenger is going by bus to the city.
Changing the order mainly affects emphasis and what is “new” information:
- Starting with Autobusom highlights the means of transport.
- Starting with U grad highlights the destination.
For a beginner, Putnik ide autobusom u grad or Putnik ide u grad autobusom are the most neutral.
Yes, putnik is grammatically masculine and typically refers to a male passenger/traveler, or a person of unspecified gender when gender isn’t important.
The feminine form is:
- putnica – female passenger / female traveler
Examples:
- Putnik ide autobusom u grad. – The (male / generic) passenger is going by bus to the city.
- Putnica ide autobusom u grad. – The female passenger is going by bus to the city.
Putnik can mean both passenger and traveler, depending on context:
- On public transport (bus, train, plane), putnik is most often understood as passenger.
- In a broader, more general sense (someone traveling somewhere), it can be traveler.
If you specifically want to emphasize traveler in a more “touristy” or long-journey sense, you might also see:
- putnik – traveler/passenger (very common, neutral)
- putnik namjernik – a wayfarer, traveler passing through (a bit stylistic/old-fashioned)
For everyday modern speech with buses, trains, etc., putnik is the standard word.
Not if you mean by bus.
- autobusom (instrumental on its own) expresses means of transport → by bus.
- s/sa + autobusom literally means with the bus (together with the bus, accompanied by the bus as an object), which is not how you say by bus.
So:
- Putnik ide autobusom u grad. – correct: The passenger is going by bus to the city.
- Putnik ide s autobusom u grad. – sounds like he is going “together with the bus” (odd or wrong in normal usage).
Yes, you can say:
- Putnik putuje autobusom u grad.
This is grammatically correct and natural.
Difference:
- ići = to go (very general, covers walking, driving, etc.; focuses on movement or going somewhere)
- putovati = to travel (slightly more “journey”-like, often for longer or more formal trips, though it can also be used for shorter ones)
Nuance:
- Putnik ide autobusom u grad. – more neutral: he is going to the city by bus.
- Putnik putuje autobusom u grad. – sounds a bit more like “he is traveling by bus to the city” (emphasizing the trip itself, not just the simple act of going).
In this context, Croatian normally uses:
u with cities, towns, villages, countries, buildings, closed spaces:
- u grad – to the city
- u Zagreb – to Zagreb
- u školu – to (the) school
- u kuću – into the house
na is used with many open areas, surfaces, events, institutions, islands, etc.:
- na selo – to the countryside
- na posao – to work
- na more – to the seaside
- na kolodvor – to the station
- na koncert – to a concert
For going to a city/town, the standard is u grad, not na grad.
You would change:
- the verb ide (is going) to je (is), and
- u grad (accusative: to the city) to u gradu (locative: in the city).
Examples:
- Putnik ide autobusom u grad. – The passenger is going by bus to the city.
- Putnik je u gradu. – The passenger is in the city.
If you also wanted to keep the bus, you’d need more context, e.g.:
- Putnik je u gradu i vozi se autobusom. – The passenger is in the city and is riding the bus.
Approximate guides for English speakers:
putnik → POOT-neek
- u like “oo” in book (but slightly longer)
- tn is a clear consonant cluster, no extra vowel in between.
ide → EE-deh
- i like “ee” in see
- e like “e” in met.
autobusom → OW-too-boh-som
- au is like saying “a” + “u” quickly: similar to “ow” in cow but smoother.
- Each vowel is pronounced clearly: a-u-to-bu-som.
grad → grahd
- r is rolled or tapped (like many Spanish or Italian r’s).
- Final d is pronounced (not silent).
All vowels are short and clear, and each written vowel is pronounced.