Learning Serbian /Croatian/Bosnian

Originally Posted by opasna_mala

I knew the difference between tebe and tobom, but I don't know the difference between "za tebe" and "za tobom"

Like "luda za tobom" (song from lepa brena)
why is it tobom and not tebe?

There are a few other cases where I have heard it "za tobom" as well.

or "mnogi placu za mnom" iz neke druge pesme

my cry for me, would it be za mene ?

Ćao Opasna mala
The verb with preposition demands an object in appropriate grammatical case.
The same verb in Serbian doesn't necessarily demand the same English proposition (literally translated) for that Enlish verb. So you have just to learn verbs and their prepositions altogether.

biti lud za (nekim/nečim) + object in instrumental (tobom)
plakati za (nekim/nečim) + object in instrumental (tobom)


za mene (akuzativ) = (meant) for me, (dedicated) to me... (no verb here)

Originally Posted by opasna_mala

I knew the difference between tebe and tobom, but I don't know the difference between "za tebe" and "za tobom"

Like "luda za tobom" (song from lepa brena)
why is it tobom and not tebe?

There are a few other cases where I have heard it "za tobom" as well.

or "mnogi placu za mnom" iz neke druge pesme

my cry for me, would it be za mene ?

Maybe you are confused with the preposition ZA, that means FOR, but in English can be ranslated differently. Instrumental answers your question WITH WHOM/WITH WHAT (with -sa). But it doesn't have to be with WITH (SA), it can be ZA, or something else.
Instrumental determines that subject is a tool used for an action to be done: I used your tool - Koristila sam se tvojim alatom. Here ALATOM is in instrumental. Also, instrumental determines a company: I went to the store with my friend - Otisla sam u prodavnicu sa prijateljem. Here PRIJATELJEM is instrumental.

In your example "Luda za tobom" cannot be translated well with "Crazy for you". A better one would be "Crazy about you". Also, the second title "Mnogi placu za mnom" can't be translated with "Everyone is crying for me" (za mene) because it means that everyone is crying (like everyone is working) for me.. the real meaning is that everyone wants to be with me (or everyone is crying to be with me)..and then you can get the meaning, cuz you have that WITH (SA)..
Don't get confused with preposition (SA, ZA...) if the word is ending with om, im, etc....you know it is instrumental.

Word TEBE is in acusative and answers you to the question WHO(M)/WHAT.
I am looking at (whom?) you - Gledam (whom?) tebe.

Hope I helped as well as Ina did

Ako sam lepo razumela, za mnom znaci about me (roughly) or with me (roughly), not for me.

I know the o meni, sa mnom, za mene, itd.
So it's pretty much from context?

luda za mnom crazy about me
placu za mnom they are crying to be with me


hvala vam punoooooooooo!
Ako budem imala jos neka pitanja, pitacu vas al za sad vi ste odgovorili sva moja pitanja

Yes, the translation depends of the context, and in these examples you can't use FOR, because the meaning of titles would be changed.
I am glad to help anytime and NEMA NA CEMU

Originally Posted by opasna_mala

Ako sam lepo razumela, za mnom znaci about me (roughly) or with me (roughly), not for me.

I know the o meni, sa mnom, za mene, itd.
So it's pretty much from context?

luda za mnom crazy about me
placu za mnom they are crying to be with me


hvala vam punoooooooooo!
Ako budem imala jos neka pitanja, pitacu vas al za sad vi ste odgovorili sva moja pitanja

placu za mnom ---- they are crying to be with me
They are crying to be with me -> Oni plaču da budu sa mnom
placu za mnom - they are crying for me


Pa već kad smo tu, hajde još da te usavršavamo:

Ako budem imala jos neka pitanja, pitacu vas al za sad vi ste odgovorili sva moja pitanja.
Ako budem imala još nekih pitanja, pitaću vas, ali za sada ste odgovorili na sva moja pitanja.

Ali generalno, dobro pričaš naš jezik

placu za mnom - they are crying to be with me (no!)
placu za mnom - they are crying for me (yes!)

Ina, ne moze se upotrebiti "for" u datom kontekstu jer recenica u engleskom gubi smisao. Mozda je najsrecnije resecnje, "they are crying because of me" ali "for" definitivno ne moze biti upotrebljen u engleskom jeziku, kao u nasem. Naravno, i ovde je rec prevedena u drugom padezu.

As well as NEKA PITANJA is correct since pitanje is neuter, and as we say NEKA DECA, we also say NEKA PITANJA.
Pronoun NEKIH, is used for male words, and cannot be used along with word pitanje (at least not correctly).

Jeste Miljna, u pravu si.

Pa evo primera gde je "for"

Kao u ovom primeru iz rečnika:
to cry (for sb/sth) | ~ (about / over sth)
The baby was crying for (= because it wanted) its mother.

Ili pesma
Vaya Con Dios: Don't Cry For Louie

Girls don't cry for Louie,
Louie wouldn't cry for you...

Ali ako ti kažeš da u engleskom bi to "for" značilo "umesto/za", (rade za mene), onda ja ne želim dalje da se mešam.


Plaču za mnom ne znači samo plaču da budu sa mnom, ni u engleskom ni u srpskom, čini mi se. To je bio cilj prethodne poruke.


Za "pitanja", ja idem ovako: ima li nekih pitanja - koga? čega? (genitiv), Ako budem imala (čega?) nekih pitanja.... a ti kažeš, ako sam razumela (šta?) akuzativ - neka pitanja. Ali, ni ovde ništa neću da tvrdim šta je tačno, izgleda oba.

Originally Posted by ina

Jeste Miljna, u pravu si.

Pa evo primera gde je "for"

Kao u ovom primeru iz rečnika:
to cry (for sb/sth) | ~ (about / over sth)
The baby was crying for (= because it wanted) its mother.

Ili pesma
Vaya Con Dios: Don't Cry For Louie

Girls don't cry for Louie,
Louie wouldn't cry for you...

Ali ako ti kažeš da u engleskom bi to "for" značilo "umesto/za", (rade za mene), onda ja ne želim dalje da se mešam.


Plaču za mnom ne znači samo plaču da budu sa mnom, ni u engleskom ni u srpskom, čini mi se. To je bio cilj prethodne poruke.


Za "pitanja", ja idem ovako: ima li nekih pitanja - koga? čega? (dativ), Ako budem imala (čega?) nekih pitanja.... a ti kažeš, ako sam razumela (šta?) akuzativ - neka pitanja. Ali, ni ovde ništa neću da tvrdim šta je tačno, izgleda oba.

Mogu ti reci da si me navela na razmisljanje..i duboku nedoumicu i ja nazvah tetku (prof srpskog) da proverim, pa da obe znamo, i ovako.. kaze:

"Ako budem imala (akuzativ - sta?) NEKA pitanja..." - to je tacno.


Sto se tice prevoda i "for", moj je cilj bio da joj pojasnim smisao naslova, kako ne bi bukvalno prevodila i gubila se u prevodima i padezima.

Veliki pozdrav Ina (nemoj da se ljutis na mene )

Ma jok, Miljana, ja ne sumnjam u tvoje znanje. MI svi učimo neprekidno. Ako ja grešim, slobodno me ispravi. I moji su profesori, s tim što sam ja tvrdoglava, pa ih ništa ne pitam

hehhe, ocigledno ovo ne mora da bude samo za one koji ne pricaju srpski, vec i za nas koji ga govorimo dobro dodje malo podsecanja gradiva..

hm...

In English cry for - need badly or desperately

should be the same as Serbian
plakati za nekim

though the Serbian variant mostly brings to mind = crying after someone (who used to be around) is gone
like in the expression "plakacete vi za mnom!", meaning "you will cry when I'm gone; so, you should appreciate me while I'm here"

It can also mean 'to mourn someone' (though, a closer word for that is 'oplakivati' nekog)

Hy Everyone!
I'm a new member here. I was reading some posts here, and I found that the people here is very helpful !! :-)
I started learning Croatian language some months ago, I'm interested in it so much. :-))
So, if I have some grammar or vocabulary problem can I turn to you for some help and advice?!

Here are some words:
- ja bih
- moran
- ispali
- dodjen
- sta or šta

Thank you in advance!

Of course you can

I guess you need translation of these expressions so here they are

- ja bih - I would
-moran - I must (officialy it's moraM, but we use ending ''n'' in Dalmatia)
-ispali - this may be past tense of the verb ''ispasti'' which means to fall out, or to turn out, for example the sentence: ''Ispalo je tako'' would mean, ''I turned out to be like that.'' but there's also another example ''Ispala je iz automobila'' - ''She fell out from the car''
It can also be imperative form of the verb ispaliti which means to launch, to shot
-dodjen - I come, verb ''doći'' to come, also with dalmatian ending ''n'' instead of official dođeM
-sta (?) I guess you mean only šta - it's also not official verb for ''what'' in croatian what is što, though šta is used mostly in Split

Thank you for the quick and clear answer!
Yes, I had some suspicion about "moran" and "dodjen", but I wasn't absolutely sure in it... The lanugage books do not mention these differences in the language.

I think it is the same with the word "but"=ali , and you say only "al"

So, I need to communicate and practice how should I say different things in Dalmatia (I mean the word-endings )

Well, croatian is really full of dialects, language is different in every village, won't even mention regions, and of course language books will only teach you standard language, I suggest you to base on standard language for now, when you think you learnt it good enough you can start to study dialects too
And yeah al' is just shorter of ali, but anyway if you have any questions about dialects you can ask too

Great work you guys are doing, I will be glad to help if it's needed, so ask away.

when you say for example; cao sta ima? and answer; dobro, a ti? its sounds so short.. I wounder if its ok to anser like this or if i need to say more and what can i say to make sound more nice ? cause if you ask some one in english you can say like hey how are you? whats up? How does it sound in bosnian when to young people talk to eachother? like boyfriend and girlfriend or friends?

ive got some sentence and words to if someone wants to help me

come on!

what are you doing tonight?

call me after

what time is it?

I'm on my way to ____. (some place)

ok, can i come after?

can we watch a movie?

are you tierd?

I would love some breakfust right now!

wake up darling (to a man)

im gonna make a dinner for you tonight

First let me translate those sentences for you.

come on! - Hajde!/Ajde! (it is the same, but in the second example the word lost H)

what are you doing tonight? - Šta radiš večeras?/ Šta ćeš raditi večeras? (the first one is in present, and the second one is future tense, but both usually have the same meaning with this question)

call me after - zovi me (kasnije) (we usually just say 'call me'; and that 'after' is our 'later', it can be used, but usually isn't)

what time is it? - koliko je sati?

I'm on my way to ____. (some place) - Idem ____. (negde)

ok, can i come after? - u redu, mogu li doći kasnije?

can we watch a movie? - možemo li (po)gledati film? (and this literally means what the sentence in English sounds, but if you want to ask someone if they want to go to watch a movie, then you would be asking hoćemo li da gledamo film?)

are you tierd? - Jesi li umoran/umorna? (umoran is for male, and umorna for female)

I would love some breakfast right now! - Prijao bi mi doručak sada!/Hteo/htela bih doručak sada! (first one sounds more like I feel like having a breakfast now, and the second one I want a breakfast now)

wake up darling (to a man) - Probudi se dragi.

I'm gonna make a dinner for you tonight - Večeras ću ti spremiti večeru.

Now I am gonna try to tell you why you feel that everything you say in Bosnian sounds "short". It is because we build our nouns and verbs with suffixes, and they help us to detect in what tense is a verb, or in which person (I, you, he, she...). So basically with one word we tell a lot. Basically, you can use language the way you like it (short or longer) to say what you want. But people here usually try to give you translation or example of how we speak commonly.
For example: Ćao, šta ima? means Hi, what's up? and that is that phrase that is commonly used. But you can always say: Zdravo, kako si, šta ima novo kod tebe? (meaning Hello, how are you, what is new with you?). It is up to you which phrases you prefer to use.

How do I say "What did you talk about?" and "Who did you talk about?"

Originally Posted by Mimi0920

How do I say "What did you talk about?" and "Who did you talk about?"

What did you talk about? = O čemu ste pričali? (if two girls were talking = O čemu ste pričale?)

Who did you talk about? = O kome ste pričali? (if two girls were talking = O kome ste pričale?)