6 | 1 | Lekcija 2: Izlet za vikend

| Future Tense

Just like the verb biti which has its stressed form (ja jesam) and unstressed form (ja sam), the verb htjeti is the only other verb in Croatian that has the same structure. In our previous lesson you already encountered the stressed form of the verb.

The unstressed form of verb htjeti is as follows:

* As you can see, the unstressed form is created by cutting off the initial ho- part of the verb in its stressed form.

When do we use stressed and when do we use the unstressed form of the verb htjeti?

| Future Tense: Writing and Pronunciation

| Writing

The most common structure of creating the future tense in Croatia is:

However, when we know who the subject of the sentence is, in everyday conversation, people often omit the subject. Since we know it is James who will be studying, we can easily say:

As you can see, the order is important as you will write the infinitive form of the verb differently. Look at both sentences.

As you can see, when omitting the subject of the sentence, the word order is different. The infinitive takes the first place, followed by the unstressed form of htjeti. If the infinitive precedes the unstressed form of htjeti, then the final –i of any –ti verb is omitted. The final –i does not disappear when the infinitive ends in -ći. Look at the following examples:

Infinitives Ending in -ti

Many of the verbs you know now will form their future in this way, e.g. kupit ću, razumijet ću, govorit ću, etc.

Infinitives Ending in -ći

You know several verbs that will form their future in this way, e.g. reći ću, ići ću, etc.

| Speech

In speech, when the infinitive takes the first place followed by the unstressed form of htjeti, you will need to pronounce everything as one word! That means that in the sentence: Učit će hrvatski jezik. - The Future Tense structure will be pronounced as one word /učiće/. In pronunciation the -t- is omitted. It is not natural to make a pause between ‘’kupit’’ and ‘’ću.’’ In other words, it is not natural to hear the final ‘’t’’ of the verb’s infinitive form.

| Question form in the Future Tense: Will you…?

In order to express the question form, you need to follow the structure:

| Negative form in the Future Tense: I Will Not…

In order to create a negative form of the verb htjeti, you need to use NE the unstressed form, written all together.

Using negation, you ultimately express the idea that you will not do something in the future.

6.1 Zadatak 4. Pitanje ili tvrdnja?

Listen to the following sentences and decide if they indicate a question about a future action or if they are expressing a statement about a future action.

6.1 Zadatak 5. Odgovori na pitanja

Read the question and then read the two possible answers. Indicate which sentence best answers each question.

6.1 Zadatak 6. Gramatika

Read the following questions and choose the correct answer.

Images used in this document are from these sources.