Breakdown of U novinama vidim oglas da je ulaz na festival besplatan.
Questions & Answers about U novinama vidim oglas da je ulaz na festival besplatan.
"U novinama" literally means "in the newspapers".
In Croatian it’s very common to use the plural novine (newspapers) to mean “the newspaper” in a general sense, as in:
- U novinama piše da… – It says in the paper that…
So u novinama (in the newspapers) is the usual way to say “in the newspaper” in everyday speech.
You could say u novini (singular: in one newspaper), but that sounds more like you are stressing the one specific copy or publication, and is less common in general statements.
Novinama is locative plural of novine.
- Nominative plural: novine (newspapers / the newspaper, in the general sense)
- Locative plural: (u) novinama – used after u (in) when talking about location
Pattern (for many feminine nouns in -e in the plural):
- nominative plural: -e → locative plural: -ama
e.g. novine → novinama, ulice → ulicama, knjige → knjigama
Yes. All of these are grammatical, but the emphasis shifts:
- U novinama vidim oglas. – Neutral; light emphasis on in the newspaper as the setting.
- Vidim oglas u novinama. – Slightly more neutral English-like order.
- Oglas vidim u novinama. – Emphasizes the ad (e.g. “It’s the ad that I see in the newspaper”).
Meaning stays the same; Croatian word order is relatively flexible, but it affects what feels emphasized or “in focus.”
Oglas is a notice, advertisement, classified ad, announcement.
Typical contexts: job ads, small ads, event announcements in newspapers, online, etc.
Reklama also means advertisement, but it tends to refer more to commercial advertising:
- oglas za posao – job ad
- oglas u novinama – newspaper ad
- TV reklama – TV commercial
- reklama za šampon – shampoo commercial
In your sentence, oglas is the natural word: an ad / notice in the newspaper.
Here da is a conjunction meaning “that”, introducing a content clause (indirect statement):
- vidim oglas da je ulaz...
→ I see an ad that (says) the entrance…
The part da je ulaz na festival besplatan is what the ad is telling you. Croatian very often uses da for this kind of “that”-clause after verbs of seeing, knowing, saying, thinking, etc.:
- čujem da je… – I hear that…
- znam da je… – I know that…
- kaže da je… – (he/she) says that…
Yes, that’s perfectly correct:
- U novinama vidim oglas koji kaže da je ulaz na festival besplatan.
= In the newspaper I see an ad that says the entrance to the festival is free.
The difference is:
- oglas da je ulaz… – a bit shorter and looser: an ad that (says) the entrance…
- oglas koji kaže da je… – more explicit: an ad which says that…
Both are natural; the original is just more compact.
Because of the “second position” rule for clitics in Croatian.
The word je (is) is a clitic and normally wants to be the second element in the clause.
In the clause:
- da je ulaz na festival besplatan
the first element is da, so je comes second. This is the default pattern:
- Ulaz je besplatan. – The entrance is free. (Ulaz = first, je = second)
- Na festival je ulaz besplatan. (Na festival = first, je = second)
"da ulaz je na festival besplatan" sounds wrong because je is being pushed away from that second position, which native speakers normally avoid.
Inside the clause da je ulaz na festival besplatan, the noun ulaz is the subject of the verb je (is).
In Croatian, as in English, the subject is in the nominative:
- Ulaz je besplatan. – The entrance is free. (Ulaz = nominative)
- Da je ulaz besplatan. – That the entrance is free.
Even though the whole clause functions as the object of vidim (I see), inside that clause, ulaz still behaves as a normal subject, so it stays in nominative.
Croatian often uses:
- na for events / public gatherings (concert, festival, party, meeting, etc.)
- u for physical spaces / interiors (room, house, school, city, etc.)
So you normally say:
- na festival – at/to the festival
- na koncert – to the concert
- na zabavu – to the party
- u kuću – into the house
- u školu – to (into) school
Here ulaz na festival literally is “entrance to the festival”, the event, so na is the natural choice.
Festival is in the accusative singular after the preposition na.
- Masculine inanimate noun: festival
- Nominative sg.: festival
- Accusative sg.: festival (same form as nominative)
After na, when you talk about goal / direction / involvement with an event, you generally use the accusative:
- ići na festival – to go to the festival
- ulaz na festival – entrance to the festival
- poziv na sastanak – invitation to a meeting
Besplatan is an adjective meaning “free (of charge)”. In ulaz je besplatan, it must:
- Agree in gender with ulaz, which is masculine.
- Agree in number and case with ulaz: singular nominative.
So:
- ulaz (m. sg. nom.) → besplatan (m. sg. nom.)
- karta je besplatna (ticket – f. sg.) → besplatna
- piće je besplatno (drink – n. sg.) → besplatno
So besplatan is the correct masculine form matching ulaz.
Both can be translated as “free” in English, but they are used differently:
besplatan – free of charge, you don’t pay:
- Ulaz je besplatan. – Entrance is free (no ticket price).
- Besplatan parking. – Free parking.
slobodan – free as in available / not occupied or not restricted / at liberty:
- Sjedalo je slobodno. – The seat is free (not taken).
- Imam slobodan dan. – I have a day off / a free day.
- Slobodan čovjek. – A free man (not a slave, not imprisoned).
In your sentence, it’s about price, so besplatan is the right word.
Literally, vidim = I see.
In context, though, u novinama vidim oglas… can easily be understood as:
- I see / notice an ad in the newspaper…
- I spot an ad in the newspaper…
It can also imply that you read it, but the verb is still about seeing visually. If you wanted to stress reading, you could say:
- U novinama čitam da je ulaz… – I read in the newspaper that the entrance is free.
Yes. For a male speaker:
- U novinama sam vidio oglas da je ulaz na festival besplatan.
– I saw an ad in the newspaper that the entrance to the festival is free.
For a female speaker:
- U novinama sam vidjela oglas da je ulaz na festival besplatan.
Structure:
- sam = auxiliary (I have / I am in past tense forms)
- vidio / vidjela = past participle of vidjeti (to see)
The rest of the sentence stays the same.