Croatian Past Tense

Verbs in the past tense

Each verb used in past tense is made of two words: one is always the present tense of the verb “to be” (biti) and the other, which is called the past participle, is derived from whichever verb you want to use.

Here is a quick reminder on how to conjugate verb “to be”:

Person	Pronoun	Verb form	Person	Pronoun	Verb form
1st/Sing	ja	sam	1st/Plur	mi	smo
2nd/Sing	ti	si	2nd/Plur	Vi/vi	ste
3rd/Sing	on/ona/ono	je	3rd/Plur	oni/one/ona	su

Examples of past tense:

kuhati – to cook >>> Marko je kuhao – Marko cooked
je – verb “to be” (3rd person singular)
kuhao – past participle (masculine, singular)

spavati – to sleep >>> Ivan je spavao – Ivan slept
je – verb “to be” (3rd person singular)
spavao – past participle (masculine, singular)

How is the past participle formed?

Although at first it appears more complicated, in some ways the past tense in Croatian is easier to use than the present tense.

Croatian verbs fall into seven different conjugation categories. The differences in conjugation are more apparent – and require more thought – in the present tense. In the past tense (if you choose to ignore the grammatical rules taking place in the background) for most verbs you can simply remove the suffix –ti from the infinitive form of the verb and add the gender-related suffix to create the past participle.

In Croatian, adjectives alway have to agree with the subject of the sentence in terms of gender, for example: (Ana je lijepa – Ana is beautiful / Marko je pametan – Marko is smart). The past participle works the same way:

Marko je mislio – Marko thought
Ja sam mislio – I thought [male]

Ana je mislila – Ana thought
Ja sam mislila – I thought [female]

All that is necessary is to learn the following gender-related endings:

Case	masculine	feminine	neuter
Nominative Singular	–o	–la	–lo
Nominative Plural	–li	–le	–la

Examples: Forming sentences in the past tense

Exceptions to the rules

Of course, there are always a few exceptions, for example:

Verbs which end with –jeti and – sti have a different ending for masculine form:

• htjeti – to want >>> On je htio – He wanted / Ona je htjela – She wanted
• gorjeti – to burn >>> On je gorio – He burnt / Ona je gorjela – She burnt
• pasti – to fall >>> On je pao – He fell / Ona je pala – She fell
• sjesti – to sit >>> On je sjeo – He sat / Ona je sjela – She sat

Verbs with end in –ći

• ići – to go >>> On je išao – He went / Ona je išla – She went
• naći – to find >>> On je našao – He found / Ona je našla – She found
• reći – to say >>> On je rekao – He said / Ona je rekla – She said

Omitting personal pronouns

In everyday speech, Croatians often omit personal pronouns in the past tense. When doing so, it’s important to remember that the verb “to be” should always be in the second position. 

This means that to say “you slept” [male] you can either say ti si spavao or spavao si. The second option generally sounds nicer and is used more commonly.

• Ja sam bila u kinu or Bila sam u kinu – I was in the cinema [female]
• Mi smo kupili kruh or  Kupili smo kruh – We bought bread
• Oni su jeli pizzu or Jeli su pizzu – They ate pizza

Exercise: How would say the following in the past tense?