Breakdown of On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
Questions & Answers about On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
Yes, you can leave On out. Both are correct:
- On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
- Prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
Croatian is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending (-i in prati) already tells you it’s he/she/it, so the personal pronoun (on / ona / ono) is usually omitted unless:
- you want to emphasize the subject:
- On prati vijesti, a ja ne. – He follows the news, but I don’t.
- you want to contrast two subjects:
- On prati vijesti, a ona ne prati. – He follows the news, but she doesn’t.
The infinitive is pratiti (to follow, to track, to keep up with).
Present tense (imperfective) conjugation:
- ja pratim – I follow
- ti pratiš – you (sg.) follow
- on/ona/ono prati – he/she/it follows
- mi pratimo – we follow
- vi pratite – you (pl./formal) follow
- oni/one/ona prate – they follow
In the sentence, prati is 3rd person singular present (he follows).
These verbs are related but not the same:
- pratiti vijesti – to follow the news, keep up with the news
- implies regularly checking updates, staying informed
- gledati vijesti – to watch the news (usually TV or a video)
- focuses on the act of watching
- slijediti vijesti – grammatically possible but unusual in this meaning
- slijediti = to follow (physically / follow someone’s lead / obey), not normally used with news
For “He follows the news on the internet every day”, pratiti is the natural choice in Croatian.
Croatian present tense (especially with an imperfective verb like pratiti) can mean:
- Right now:
- (Sada) prati vijesti. – He is (right now) following/reading the news.
- Habit / repeated action:
- Prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan. – He follows the news on the internet every day.
Here, the adverbial svaki dan (every day) clearly shows it’s a habitual action.
In Croatian, vijest literally means “a piece of news / a news item / a report”.
- jedna vijest – one news item
- dvije / tri / mnogo vijesti – two / three / many news items
So vijesti is just the normal plural noun meaning “news items”. When Croatians talk about “the news” in general, they almost always say it in the plural:
- Pratim vijesti. – I follow the news.
- Dobre su vijesti. – That’s good news.
English uses an uncountable news; Croatian treats them as countable pieces (vijest, vijesti).
The basic form (dictionary form) is:
- vijest – news item, report (feminine singular, nominative)
In the sentence:
- prati (što?) vijesti – follows what? – vijesti
→ This is accusative plural, used for the direct object of the verb.
For this noun type, nominative plural and accusative plural look the same:
- nominative plural: vijesti (as subject)
- Vijesti su zanimljive. – The news (items) are interesting.
- accusative plural: vijesti (as object)
- Pratim vijesti. – I follow the news.
So here it’s accusative plural, but it looks identical to the nominative plural.
The preposition na can take locative (location) or accusative (direction):
- na + locative = on / in (static, where something happens)
- na internetu – on the internet (location)
- na stolu – on the table
- na + accusative = onto / to (movement towards)
- Idem na internet. – I’m going online / onto the internet.
- Stavi knjigu na stol. – Put the book on the table.
In On prati vijesti na internetu, the action happens on the internet, not towards it, so locative is used:
- internet (dictionary form, nominative)
- (na) internetu – locative singular
u internetu would literally mean inside the internet and is not used in this context.
Dictionary form:
- internet – masculine singular, nominative
Case in the sentence:
- na čemu? – on what? → na internetu
→ locative singular of internet
Masculine nouns ending in a consonant often take -u in the locative singular:
- grad → u gradu – in the city
- park → u parku – in the park
- internet → na internetu – on the internet
svaki dan literally = “every day”.
- dan – day (masculine noun)
- svaki – every (masculine form of the adjective)
Grammatically, svaki dan is in the accusative case used as a time expression (time when / how often something happens). Croatian often uses bare accusative (no preposition) for time expressions:
- svaki dan – every day
- prošli tjedan – last week
- cijelu noć – all night
So here, svaki dan functions as an adverbial of time: it tells you how often he follows the news.
Both are common and both mean “every day”:
- svaki dan – accusative
- svakog dana – genitive
In everyday speech, svaki dan is more frequent and neutral.
svakog dana can sound slightly more formal, emphatic, or stylistic, but in many contexts they are interchangeable:
- On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
- On prati vijesti na internetu svakog dana.
Both are correct; use svaki dan as your default.
Croatian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically correct, with small differences in emphasis:
- On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan. – neutral, straightforward
- On svaki dan prati vijesti na internetu. – slight emphasis on every day
- Svaki dan prati vijesti na internetu. – starting with the time frame
- Na internetu prati vijesti svaki dan. – slight emphasis on on the internet
- Vijesti prati na internetu svaki dan. – fronting vijesti for focus
The basic neutral order for learners is:
[Subject] [Verb] [Object] [Place] [Time]
On prati vijesti na internetu svaki dan.
Later you can play with word order to highlight what you want to emphasize.
Yes, common near‑synonyms include:
- novosti – news, new things
- Pratim novosti na internetu. – I follow the news/updates online.
- informacije – information (a bit broader and more general)
- Traži informacije na internetu. – He looks for information on the internet.
However, for “the news” as we usually mean it (current events, politics, etc.), vijesti is the most standard and natural word.
Pronunciation (rough English approximation):
- vijesti → vee-yes-tee
- v as in victory
- i as in machine
- j like English y in yes
- stress usually on the first syllable: VÍ‑jes‑ti
- prati → pra-tee
- r is rolled or tapped
- a as in father
- ti as in tea
- stress on the first syllable: PRÁ‑ti
Croatian spelling is very phonetic: each letter is almost always pronounced the same way, and every letter is pronounced.