03.01.2020 Views

EasyCroatian_r47.an

Create successful ePaper yourself

Turn your PDF publications into a flip-book with our unique Google optimized e-Paper software.

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 05 Accusave Case 30 / 600

The accusative ending is not added to pas, but to a slightly shorter form (ps). We can

call that form the ‘case-base’ and list it after such nouns, in parentheses:

nominative

‘case-base’

magarac (magarc-) donkey

pas (ps-) dog

vrabac (vrapc-) sparrow

The case-base form has usually just the last syllable shortened, but sometimes

there’s a consonant alternation as well. (This form is also called oblique stem, or just

stem; I’ve invented a simple name for it.)

A few nouns have two possible forms of their case-base. However, the difference is

only in spelling, as in sequences -dc- and -tc-, only -c-; is pronounced. Common ones

are:

sudac (sudc- / suc-) judge

svetac (svetc- / svec-) saint ®

A few male names that end in either -o or -e behave as if they end in a consonant

and have a specific case-base, usually just without the last vowel (j is added if the

word ends in -io):

Darko (Dark-)

Hrvoje (Hrvoj-)

Marko (Mark-)

Dario (Darij-)

Mario (Marij-)

Silvio (Silvij-)

For example:

Ana čeka Marka. Ana is waiting for Marko.

Josip ne poznaje Hrvoja. Josip doesn’t know Hrvoje.

poznavati

The j is sometimes carried even to the nominative (that is, dictionary) form:

according to the official statistics, there are 32708 Mario’s and 4066 Marijo’s in

Croatia.

Finally, there are common male names that change as if they end in -a. They end in -

e or -o, but that’s just in the nominative case. All other forms are like for nouns in -a.

Such names are historically nicknames. For example, Ante is a nickname for Antun

(corresponding to English Anthony), but it’s used as an official name as well (there

are 35457 Ante’s in Croatia).

Two more names that behave like that are Ivo and Kruno. For a more exhaustive

list, check L1 Common Names.

To mark such strange names, I’ll use (A -u) as a reminder that they change like any

other nouns in -a, i.e. get an -u in the accusative case. For example:

Hooray! Your file is uploaded and ready to be published.

Saved successfully!

Ooh no, something went wrong!