Koliko će sastanak trajati?

How long will the meeting last?

Breakdown of Koliko će sastanak trajati?

• htjeti: will
• sastanak: meeting
• koliko: how long
• trajati: to take

Questions & Answers about Koliko će sastanak trajati?

Why is koliko used here? Does it mean how much or how long?

In this sentence, koliko means how long.

By itself, koliko often means how much / how many, but with verbs of duration such as trajati (to last), it naturally means how long.

So:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = How long will the meeting last?

Croatian does not always need a separate word like long in this kind of sentence, because the verb trajati already points to duration.

What does će mean here?

Će is the future-tense auxiliary. It helps form the future tense in Croatian.

Here:

• će ... trajati = will last

So the sentence is talking about the future:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = How long will the meeting last?

In standard Croatian, future tense is often formed with:

• a form of htjeti used as an auxiliary
• plus the infinitive

In the 3rd person singular, that auxiliary is će.

Why is the verb split into će and trajati instead of being written together?

Croatian future tense is commonly built with:

• ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će
• plus the infinitive

When the auxiliary comes before the infinitive, they stay separate:

• će trajati

So this sentence is normal:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati?

You may also see future forms written in another order in some contexts, where the infinitive loses its final -i and joins more closely with the auxiliary, but for learners, će + infinitive is the clearest pattern to recognize here.

Why is sastanak in that form? Why not some other case?

Sastanak is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

The sentence is asking about the duration of the meeting, and the meeting is the thing that will last.

So:

• sastanak = the meeting as subject
• nominative singular is the expected form

If you changed the role of the noun in the sentence, the case might change, but here nominative is correct.

What exactly does trajati mean?

Trajati means to last, to continue, or to take (time) depending on context.

In this sentence, the best natural translation is:

• to last

So:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = How long will the meeting last?

You could also think of it as:

• How long will the meeting take?

But the core meaning of trajati is about duration.

Could I also say Koliko dugo će sastanak trajati?

Yes, absolutely. Koliko dugo će sastanak trajati? is also correct and very common.

Both mean:

• How long will the meeting last?

Difference in feel:

• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = perfectly normal, a bit shorter
• Koliko dugo će sastanak trajati? = slightly more explicit, because dugo directly reinforces the idea of duration

Learners often find koliko dugo easier to understand at first, but the shorter version is very natural too.

Can I say Koliko traje sastanak? instead?

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Koliko traje sastanak? = How long does the meeting last? / How long is the meeting?
• Koliko će sastanak trajati? = How long will the meeting last?

So the difference is mainly present vs future.

Use the present tense if you are asking generally or about something happening now. Use the future tense if you are asking about a meeting that has not started yet or is still in the future.

Why is the word order Koliko će sastanak trajati? and not something else?

This is a very natural Croatian word order for a question.

A rough structure is:

• question word: Koliko
• auxiliary: će
• subject: sastanak
• main verb: trajati

Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order, but this version sounds standard and neutral.

You may hear other possible orders depending on emphasis, but for a learner, this is the best basic pattern to remember.

How do I pronounce će and the letter ć?

The letter ć is a soft consonant that does not exist exactly in standard English.

A useful approximation is something like:

• ć ≈ a very soft ch sound

So će sounds roughly like:

• chyeh or tyeh, depending on how fine you want the distinction

Important notes:

• ć is not the same as plain c
• c in Croatian sounds like ts
• ć is softer than č

For many beginners, getting close is enough at first. The main thing is to notice that će is not pronounced like tsee.

Is there an article missing before sastanak? Why doesn’t Croatian say the meeting directly?

Croatian has no articles like English a and the.

So sastanak can mean:

• a meeting
• the meeting

The exact meaning depends on context.

In this sentence, English usually translates it as the meeting because that sounds natural in context:

• How long will the meeting last?

But Croatian does not need a separate word for the.

Is this sentence formal or informal?

It is neutral and works in both formal and informal situations.

• In an office or business context, it is perfectly normal
• In everyday conversation, it is also perfectly natural

There is nothing especially formal, slangy, or unusual about it. It is a standard way to ask about the duration of a meeting.

Could sastanak also mean something other than meeting?

Usually sastanak means meeting, especially in work, school, or organizational contexts.

Depending on context, it can refer to:

• a business meeting
• an arranged meeting
• a formal discussion

If you are talking about a romantic date or a casual meetup, Croatian might use a different word depending on the situation. But in this sentence, meeting is the most natural interpretation.