A2 · Elementary
🧩 Cases: the big idea الحالات الإعرابية: الفكرة الأساسية
Croatian nouns change their ending depending on their job in the sentence.
1. Why endings change
English shows the role of a word by its position: “the dog sees the man” is not “the man sees the dog”. Croatian shows it with endings instead, so the word order can move. There are seven cases; you meet them gradually.
| Case | kava (f.) | grad (m.) | selo (n.) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominativethe subject | kava | grad | selo |
| Accusativethe object | kavu | grad | selo |
| Genitiveof, without, after “no” | kave | grada | sela |
| Locativein, at, about | kavi | gradu | selu |
| Instrumentalwith | kavom | gradom | selom |
Examples
- Kava je dobra.
The coffee is good. · القهوة جيدة. - Pijem kavu.
I drink coffee. · أشرب القهوة. - Nemam kave.
I have no coffee. · ليس لديّ قهوة. - Živim u gradu.
I live in the city. · أعيش في المدينة.
💡 Do not try to memorise all seven at once. Learn them as fixed phrases first (“u Zagrebu”, “na poslu”) and the pattern will appear by itself.
Now practise it
Malingo turns this grammar into short exercises with listening and speaking. Free, in English or Arabic.
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