Breakdown of Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom.
Questions & Answers about Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom.
Umjesto requires the genitive case, so film changes to its genitive singular form filma.
- film = nominative (dictionary form)
- filma = genitive singular
Many prepositions in Croatian always take a specific case. Umjesto (instead of) is followed by the genitive, so you say:
- umjesto filma – instead of a movie
- umjesto kave – instead of coffee
- umjesto brata – instead of (my) brother
Using umjesto film would be grammatically wrong.
Umjesto means instead of and usually introduces a noun in the genitive case.
Common patterns:
umjesto + genitive noun
- umjesto kave pijem čaj – instead of coffee, I drink tea
- umjesto filma čitam roman – instead of a movie, I read a novel
umjesto da + verb (clause)
- Umjesto da gledam film, čitam roman. – Instead of watching a movie, I’m reading a novel.
So you can say either:
- Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman …
or - Umjesto da gledam film, večeras čitam roman …
The first uses a noun (film), the second uses a clause (da gledam film).
Yes, it’s natural and stylistically preferred.
Umjesto filma is an initial adverbial phrase (it sets the circumstance: “instead of a movie”), so it’s normally separated by a comma from the rest of the sentence:
- Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom.
You could sometimes see it without a comma in casual writing, but standard punctuation uses the comma here.
Yes. Croatian word order is quite flexible. All of these are grammatically correct:
- Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom.
- Večeras, umjesto filma, čitam roman na hrvatskom.
- Večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom umjesto filma.
The differences are mostly about emphasis:
- Starting with Umjesto filma highlights the contrast: what you’re not doing.
- Starting with Večeras highlights the time.
- Putting umjesto filma at the end can sound more like an afterthought or clarification.
But all convey the same basic idea.
In Croatian, the present tense is very often used for planned near-future actions, especially with a time expression like večeras (tonight), sutra (tomorrow), etc.:
- Večeras čitam roman. – I’m reading a novel tonight.
- Sutra idem u Zagreb. – I’m going to Zagreb tomorrow.
You can also use the future tense:
- Večeras ću čitati roman. or Večeras čitat ću roman.
Both are correct.
Nuance:
- Večeras čitam roman. – sounds like a firm plan, similar to English “I’m reading a novel tonight.”
- Večeras ću čitati roman. – slightly more neutral “I will read a novel tonight.”
Forms like čitati ću (full infinitive + ću) are used in speech but the standard written form is čitat ću (clitic attaches to the short infinitive).
The difference is mainly aspect:
- čitam – imperfective (focus on the ongoing activity, the process of reading)
- pročitam – perfective (focus on completing the action, finishing the book)
In your sentence:
- večeras čitam roman – tonight I’m (spending time) reading a novel
- večeras ću pročitati roman – tonight I will (manage to) finish the novel
For “I’m reading tonight” as an activity, čitam is the natural choice.
These mean different things:
- hrvatski roman = a Croatian novel (a novel written by a Croatian author / originating from Croatia), i.e. describing the origin or type of novel.
- roman na hrvatskom = a novel in Croatian (language), i.e. describing the language in which you’re reading it.
Your sentence means you’re reading in the Croatian language, so roman na hrvatskom is correct.
You could even have:
- hrvatski roman na hrvatskom – a Croatian novel in Croatian (not translated).
Hrvatskom here is in the locative case, singular, masculine/neuter (ending -om).
The full phrase would be:
- na hrvatskom jeziku – in the Croatian language
But jezik (language) is clear from context, so it’s often dropped:
- na hrvatskom (jeziku)
So:
- hrvatski – nominative masculine singular (e.g. hrvatski jezik)
- hrvatskom – locative masculine singular (e.g. na hrvatskom jeziku)
The preposition na with a language normally takes the locative:
na engleskom / na njemačkom / na španjolskom / na hrvatskom.
With languages, Croatian conventionally uses na + locative:
- na hrvatskom – in Croatian
- na engleskom – in English
- na francuskom – in French
This is a fixed idiomatic pattern. You don’t say u hrvatskom to mean “in Croatian (language)” in standard usage.
You can use u hrvatskom jeziku in very formal or technical contexts, but in everyday speech and writing, na hrvatskom is the normal form.
Croatian has no articles (no “a” or “the”). The noun roman by itself can mean:
- a novel
- the novel
- novels (in general), depending on context.
To make it more specific, you normally add more information:
- čitam onaj roman – I’m reading that novel
- čitam ovaj roman – I’m reading this novel
- čitam onaj poznati roman – I’m reading that famous novel
- čitam onaj roman koji si mi posudio – I’m reading the novel you lent me
In your sentence, roman is understood as “a novel” unless context has already established a specific one.
If you remove večeras, you get:
- Umjesto filma čitam roman na hrvatskom.
This is still correct. It now means something like:
- Instead of a movie, I read a novel in Croatian.
(There is no specific time reference; it could be a habit or a general statement.)
With večeras, you specify when:
- Umjesto filma, večeras čitam roman na hrvatskom.
→ This evening, instead of watching a movie, I’m reading a novel in Croatian.
So večeras adds a clear time frame and makes it sound like a specific plan for tonight.