Questions & Answers about Ne znam koliko vremena imamo.
In Croatian, the subject pronoun (like ja = I) is usually dropped because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
- znam = I know
- ne znam = I don’t know
The ending -m tells you it’s first person singular. So Ne znam literally means (I) don’t know.
You can say Ja ne znam, but it sounds more emphatic: I don’t know (as opposed to someone else).
In Croatian, ne is the standard word for not, and it goes directly in front of the verb:
- znam → ne znam (I know → I don’t know)
- razumijem → ne razumijem (I understand → I don’t understand)
- vidim → ne vidim (I see → I don’t see)
You don’t move ne around; it always comes right before the verb form it negates.
The base (dictionary) form is vrijeme (time, weather).
In koliko vremena, vremena is the genitive singular form of vrijeme.
The pattern is:
- nominative (dictionary form): vrijeme
- genitive singular: vremena
After koliko when it means how much, Croatian often uses the genitive to express an amount of something:
- koliko vremena – how much time
- koliko novca – how much money
- koliko prostora – how much space
So koliko vremena is literally how much of time → how much time.
Yes. Both are correct:
- Ne znam koliko vremena imamo.
- Ne znam koliko imamo vremena.
Both mean the same thing. The difference is just word order, and both orders are natural here.
Croatian word order is more flexible than English; as long as the relationships (cases, verb endings) are clear, changing word order often only affects emphasis or flow, not basic meaning. Here, there’s no strong change in nuance.
The subject mi (we) is also usually dropped for the same reason as ja: the verb ending shows the subject.
- imamo = we have (1st person plural)
- mi imamo = we have (emphasized we)
In this sentence, imamo is enough; mi is optional:
- Ne znam koliko vremena imamo. – neutral
- Ne znam koliko vremena mi imamo. – puts extra stress on we (as opposed to someone else).
- Koliko vremena imamo? – a direct question: How much time do we have?
- Ne znam koliko vremena imamo. – an indirect (embedded) question: I don’t know how much time we have.
In the second sentence, koliko vremena imamo functions as a clause inside the larger sentence with Ne znam.
Not really in that form. Here’s the difference:
- koliko vremena – literally how much time (measures time as a quantity)
- koliko dugo – how long (in duration)
You can say:
- Ne znam koliko dugo ćemo ostati. – I don’t know how long we will stay.
- Ne znam koliko vremena imamo. – I don’t know how much time we have.
If you try Ne znam koliko dugo imamo, it sounds incomplete in Croatian (how long we have what?). Dugo normally needs a verb expressing an action over time, like čekati, ostati, raditi, etc.
By default, it usually means how much time we have left in some context (e.g. before a deadline, before something happens).
However, in the right context it could also mean how much time we have available in general (for a project, trip, etc.). The sentence itself is ambiguous, and the exact sense comes from the situation you’re talking about.
It’s neutral and suitable in both informal and most formal situations.
You might hear a slightly more polite or formal variant in some contexts:
- Ne znam koliko vremena imamo na raspolaganju. – I don’t know how much time we have at our disposal.
But the original sentence is perfectly acceptable almost anywhere.
znam:
- z like z in zoo
- n and m as in English
- The cluster zn is pronounced together, like in English asthma (the th is silent, leaving you with an z-m feel), but Croatian actually pronounces both z and n clearly: z-nam.
vremena:
- vre – vreh without the h; v as in very, r is tapped/trilled, e like in bed
- me – meh (short e)
- na – nah
So: VRE-me-na, with fairly even stress, usually on the first syllable: VRE-me-na.