⚙️ 1 | 2 | Lekcija 1: Ljudi i stvari – Gramatika

Dr. Frane Karabatić

Cjelina 1: Dobro došli!

⚙️ 1 | 2 | Lekcija 1: Ljudi i stvari – Gramatika

Who is that? – What is this?

Let’s take a look at demonstrative pronouns in Croatian and learn how to use them with people and objects around us.

James

❓ Who and What

Just like in English, you need to distinguish the function of tko from što. Tko (who) refers to animate nouns (people), while što (what) refers to inanimate nouns (objects).

Who (tko) – What (što)

Tko je ovo?

Ovo je moj tata.
Ovo je moja mama.
Ovo je moje dijete.

Što je ovo?

Ovo je moj mobitel.
Ovo je moja knjiga.
ovo je moje ogledalo.

1.2.1 Zadatak 1. Tko ili što?

Choose the correct question form, based on the sentence/answer that is provided on each slide.

James and friends

👉 This / That / That over there

You already encountered the difference between who (tko) and what (što). However, just as a review: Just like in English, you need to distinguish the function of tko from što. Tko (who) refers to animate nouns (people), while što (what) refers to inanimate nouns (objects).

Now, back to demonstrative pronouns – ovo (this), to (that), and ono (that over there). When do we use them, and how do we use them? Demonstrative pronouns are used when we want to point out to something or someone, and they are very often used with the question tko or što.

OVO: Tko je ovo? (Who is this?) / Što je ovo? (What is this?)

TO: Tko je to? (Who is that?) / Što je to? (What is that?)

ONO: Tko je ono? (Who is that over there?) / Što je ono? (What is that over there?)

In this lesson, you encountered the following dialogue:

James and Luka

As you can see, James is much closer to the picture than Luka. Thus, James has to use the form ovo as it is closer to him (Who is this?). On the other hand, Luka has to use to as the picture is closer to James and not to him (That is Marko Marulić.).

As you can see, usage of the demonstrative pronoun depends on where the thing that we are referring to is located. In other words, if the thing that we are referring to is closer to a speaker we need to use ovo. If the thing we are referring to is closer to a listener, we need to use to. If the thing we are referring to is equally far away from both speakers, we need to use ono.

ovo (this)
to (that)
ono (that over there)

Ovo – To – Ono

Scenario #1 – Equally close to both speakers

Speaker 1: Tko je ovo? (Who is this?)
Speaker 2: Ovo je moj otac. (This is my father.)

Scenario #2 – Closer to a Speaker 1

Speaker 1: Tko je ovo? (Who is this?)
Speaker 2: To je moj otac. (That is my father.)

Scenario #3 – Closer to a Speaker 2

Speaker 1: Tko je to? (Who is that?)
Speaker 2: Ovo je moj otac. (This is my father.)

Scenario #4 – Far away from both speakers

Speaker 1: Tko je ono? (Who is that over there?)
Speaker 2: Ono je moj otac. (That over there is my father.)

To understand better, look at the following dialogues/pictures. We’re skipping Scenario #1…why? Because it’s the easiest! When something is close to both the speaker and the listener, you’ll always use the demonstrative pronoun ovo.

1.2.1 Zadatak 2. Ovo — to — ono

Look at the following pictures and complete the sentence of each person. What demonstrative pronoun do both characters need to use in each picture?

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