Maybe you’ve noticed that for some time now, I haven’t written a single word about the Croatian language, Croatian life, Croatian ways… or about anything, to be honest. I must say that I was a bit taken aback by the fact that my emails weren’t exactly cluttered up with fan mail inquiring about an obvious absence of my profound thoughts in the media!
I did get one complaint through email though… but that one was from my editor who was kindly inquiring if inspiration had paid me a visit yet and, perhaps more to the point, will it ever visit me again? So, I’m not entirely sure that that one counts. Either way, it’s nice that someone notices that you’re actually being quiet when you are.
Why didn’t I write? It’s very simple. Believe it or not, I just didn’t have anything wise to say.
I’m not one to keep quiet usually. You know that person at your workplace that everybody is always nudging with their elbows under the table to speak up at the staff meeting and to tell the boss that obvious thing everybody is thinking, but nobody wants to say out loud? Well, I am that person, at least I was. As the years have passed by, I have learned that sometimes I just have to keep my big mouth shut. Well, I’m still in the learning process anyway…
If we exclude the conversational conflicts in which the average Croat might confront his boss, we might say that Croats really like to talk. That’s why, I presume, we have so many different verbs which describe talking itself. If you’re learning Croatian, you might find yourself a bit puzzled and slightly irritated with the number of verbs that are in some way connected to such a simple thing, such as making conversation.
Govoriti / to speak, to talk
Reći, kazati / to say
Pričati / to tell a story
Razgovarati / to converse, to talk to each other
All of these verbs are pretty similar in meaning, but in standard Croatian, they aren’t used with the same purpose. For example, the verb govoriti can be used to say: Ja govorim nešto, a ti me ne slušaš / I’m talking/saying something and you are not listening to me! which is a very useful and multifunctional sentence in parenting one-on one.
But, if you’re talking to another person in the sense of holding a conversation with them, you need to use the verb – razgovarati. Ja razgovaram s prijateljicom. It is uncommon to say: Ja govorim s prijateljicom. In standard Croatian there’s a difference beetwen the verb pričati / to tell a story and the verb govoriti / to talk, so it wouldn’t be proper to say: Ja dobro pričam hrvatski, (which many Croats wrongly say, just by the way), you should instead say: Ja dobro govorim hrvatski.
However, when you find yourself wandering through the Croatian streets or going somewhere on the tram, these verbs often do get mixed up, so, as mentioned, you will often hear people say: Pričam s nekim, which is not proper, as well as: Razgovaram s nekim, which is correct, meaning: I am talking to someone. That is if you actually ever even happen to see anybody actually talking to each other on the tram and not writing an essay on their smartphones.
Croats like to converse, a lot, to each other. But even better, they like to talk to themselves or to an audience. Do you think I’m exaggerating? Try to walk through the streets of Zagreb on a busy Monday afternoon. Every few metres you will see a person vividly explaining to themselves why they didn’t come for coffee yesterday or having an argument with their boss. Who is not at the street at that exact time.
Giving monologues to an audience in which the other person can just nod their head and slide in an occasional Mhm… Ma nemoj mi reći! / You don’t say! is also a very Croatian thing to do. Just look at the back mirror of your car while waiting for the green light, usually there is a woman giving a monologue and the guy with a completely lost look in his eyes, just phlegmatically nodding his head during all the wrong times throughout the monologue.
We just love to have an opinion on everything, from the weather forecast to football, to Severina’s new husband, to the national GDP, the current political situation in the Middle East… We have an opinion on everything and we are not afraid to talk about it. I’m guessing that is a consequence of all those political decades during which we weren’t supposed to have (or share) our own opinions on anything relevant.
However, a strange thing happens to all those loud ”opinion providers” if you remove them from their favourite coffee place and put them in a conference room instead. If you happen to see a bunch of Croats in a conference and the lecturer asks: Does anyone have a question? All you will hear is a mix of silence and that annoying fly buzzing around the light. The clock is slowly ticking, the lecturer is sweating through his shirt and then some poor soul from the last row raises her hand and asks something in a quiet and timid voice.
At that time, you’ll see all of the Croatian audience turning towards her with the same angry yet astonished look in their eyes: How dares she? Who does she she think she is? Hah, I could have though of that stupid question myself! Not standing out in a group, keeping a low profile and being just the same as anybody else is part of the ”heritage” of our colourful political history.
The verbs mentioned earlier are far from the whole selection of verbs connected to speaking or talking. Let’s see what else we have:
Nagovarati / to talk into
Pregovarati / to negotiate
Ogovarati / to badmouth
Prigovarati / to nag / to make a fuss about
Dogovarati se / to agree on or arrange something
As far as that last one is concerned, it is one of the most commonly used verbs in the Croatian language and one of the favourite verbs of my mother.
Mum, can I go to the store with my sister and buy an ice cream? asked five-year old me with her eyes full of hope.
Dogovorit ćemo se! / We’ll have to arrange it! / We’ll sort something out! mum would reply with a conspiritive smirk on her face.
Mum, can I go to the New Kids on the Block concert with my sister this weekend? (Yes, yes, New Kids on the Block was a huge hit when I was growing up, I know, I’m old, no need to remind me!) – fourteen-year-old me asked my mum, filled with a sense of naive hope and some tears, prepared just in case…
Dogovorit ćemo se! / We’ll have to arrange it! she gently smiled at me.
Mum, can I borrow your car on Friday night? nineteen-year old me ambitiously asked mum that hot summer afternoon. Dogovorit ćemo se! / We’ll have to arrange it! mum answered patiently, grinning at me.
As time passed by, I realised that the answer dogovorit ćemo se! is a secret code for no way, kid! / nema šanse, mala! I hated that sentence like nothing else. In time I completely forgot about it and all those promised arrengements with my mum which never took place, until one evening a few months ago, my daughter approached me asking: Mum, can I invite my friend for a sleepover this weekend? and I replied: Dogovorit ćemo se! She slammed the door and yelled: You always say that!
Later I realised that dogovorit ćemo se! is not only the favourite ”mum sentence”, but also a favourite sentence for any kind of meeting business deal. Every business meeting in Croatia ends with a handshake and those three words: Dogovorit ćemo se!
And as for these other verbs like ogovarati, prigovarati, nagovarati – I don’t think we should waste any time in writing about them! You see, we people in Croatia never badmouth eachother, we rarely ever fuss about things and we never ever let somebody to persuade us to do anything that we don’t want to do, right? We’ll leave that one up to you!
If you want to learn more about Croatian language courses, click here.
Subscribe to our newsletter
the fields marked with * are requiredRelated posts:
Smallpox, Diarrhoea and Free Hand Jobs: Lost in Translation in Croatia
Leprosy, Bitches and a Burek named Desire: Lost in Translation in Croatia
Four Magical Words and the Alphabet: UK Language Imbecile’s Continuing Croatian Catastrophe
Shakespeare, the Pope and the Way to the ”See”: Lost in Translation in Croatia
