Ako bol ne prođe, zvat ćemo hitnu.

not

Breakdown of Ako bol ne prođe, zvat ćemo hitnu.

• htjeti: will
• zvati: to call
• ako: if

Questions & Answers about Ako bol ne prođe, zvat ćemo hitnu.

What does ako mean, and how is this sentence structured?

Ako means if.

The sentence has two parts:

• Ako bol ne prođe = If the pain doesn’t go away
• zvat ćemo hitnu = we’ll call an ambulance / emergency medical help

So the structure is a normal if + result pattern:

Ako X, Y = If X, Y

Here, the if-clause comes first, so it sets the condition for what will happen next.

Why is prođe in a present form when the sentence is talking about the future?

This is normal in Croatian.

After ako (if), Croatian often uses the present tense to talk about a possible future situation. English does something very similar:

• If the pain doesn’t go away, we’ll call an ambulance.

We do not normally say:

• If the pain won’t go away, we’ll call an ambulance in this kind of neutral prediction.

So Ako bol ne prođe is literally in a present form, but it refers to a future possibility: if the pain doesn’t pass/go away.

Why is it ne prođe and not ne prolazi?