Questions & Answers about Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu.
Word by word:
- na – on
- karti – (on the) map (locative case of karta, “map”)
- vidimo – we see
- put – road / way / path
- kroz – through
- šumu – (the) forest (accusative case of šuma, “forest”)
A very close, natural translation is:
“On the map we see a road through the forest.”
The Croatian word order is actually very similar to English here. You could also say Vidimo put kroz šumu na karti in Croatian, which is more like “We see a road through the forest on the map”, but the meaning stays the same; only the emphasis shifts slightly (see a later question on word order).
Karti is in the locative singular case of the noun karta (a feminine noun meaning “map” or “card”).
For feminine nouns ending in -a in the nominative singular:
- Nominative (dictionary form): karta – “map”
- Locative singular: karti – “(on/in) the map”
The preposition na can take either:
- Locative – when talking about location (where something is):
- na karti – on the map
- na stolu – on the table
- Accusative – when talking about movement to a surface (onto):
- na stol – onto the table
- na plažu – to the beach
In Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu, we are talking about where we see the road (its location – on the map), so na requires the locative case: na karti, not na karta.
Croatian usually drops subject pronouns (like I, you, we) because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.
The verb vidimo is the 1st person plural present tense of vidjeti (to see). Its ending -mo clearly marks “we”:
- vidim – I see
- vidiš – you (sg) see
- vidi – he/she/it sees
- vidimo – we see
- vidite – you (pl/formal) see
- vide – they see
Because of that, saying Mi vidimo put kroz šumu is grammatically correct but usually unnecessary unless you want to emphasize we (“We see … (not someone else)”).
Vidimo is the 1st person plural, present tense form of the verb vidjeti (“to see”).
Present tense conjugation of vidjeti:
- ja vidim – I see
- ti vidiš – you (sg) see
- on/ona/ono vidi – he/she/it sees
- mi vidimo – we see
- vi vidite – you (pl or formal) see
- oni/one/ona vide – they see
So vidimo = “we see”.
You might also wonder about vidjeti vs gledati:
- vidjeti – to see (perceive something with your eyes, often not intentional)
- gledati – to look at / to watch (more intentional, like watching TV)
In this sentence, vidimo (we see) is the natural choice.
Yes, put is the direct object of vidimo and it is in the accusative case.
The key point: for many masculine inanimate nouns in Croatian, the nominative and accusative singular forms are identical.
For put:
- Nominative sg: put – road
- Accusative sg: put – road (same form)
So you don’t see a change, but grammatically, put here functions as accusative singular. Context and syntax (its role as direct object of the verb) tell you it’s the object, even though the form matches the nominative.
The preposition kroz (through) always takes the accusative case.
The noun šuma (“forest”) is a feminine noun ending in -a. Its singular forms:
- Nominative: šuma – forest
- Accusative: šumu – (the) forest (as object or after certain prepositions)
Because kroz requires the accusative:
- kroz šumu – through the forest
- kroz školu – through the school
- kroz kuću – through the house
So kroz šuma would be incorrect; it must be kroz šumu.
All three are related to the idea of travel, but they’re used differently:
put
- basic meaning: road, way, path
- can be concrete: put kroz šumu – a road through the forest
- can be more abstract: na pravi put – on the right path (in life)
cesta
- specifically: road, street, usually for vehicles
- e.g. glavna cesta – main road, autocesta – motorway/highway
- in many contexts put and cesta can both be translated as “road”, but cesta sounds more like a built road, while put can be any route or path.
putovanje
- a noun meaning “a trip, a journey, travel”
- e.g. dugo putovanje – a long journey
In Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu, put is best understood as “road” or “path” drawn on the map.
In everyday Croatian:
- karta is the standard, most common word for a geographic map.
- mapa is used, but more often means:
- a folder / file (for papers), or
- occasionally a map, under influence from other languages or in specific contexts.
You can hear na mapi in informal speech, and people will understand you, but the most natural and standard way to say “on the map” for a geographic map is:
- na karti
So Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu is the best and most idiomatic version.
Yes, you can change the word order; Croatian has fairly flexible word order, and your example is grammatically correct.
Possible variants (all correct):
- Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu.
- Vidimo put kroz šumu na karti.
- Put kroz šumu vidimo na karti.
The basic meaning remains the same: you see a road through the forest on the map.
The difference is emphasis:
Na karti vidimo put kroz šumu.
– emphasizes where you see it: “On the map, we see a road through the forest.”Put kroz šumu vidimo na karti.
– emphasizes the road through the forest as the topic: “The road through the forest – we see it on the map.”
For a learner, the original version is perfectly natural and clear.
Pronunciation (rough approximations using English sounds):
šumu – “shoo-moo”
- š = like sh in shoe
- u = like oo in food, always
- stress is usually on the first syllable: ŠU-mu
kroz – roughly “kroz”
- r is rolled or tapped (a quick single tap, like in many Scottish or Spanish r’s)
- o = like o in not (British) or something between o in not and a in father
- z = like z in zoo
The special letter š is just s with a “v” hat (caron) and always sounds like English sh.
So:
- s = [s] (as in see)
- š = [ʃ] (as in shoe)
There are no silent letters in Croatian, so every letter is pronounced.