21 Instrumental Case

• • • Review: Genitive Case, Basic Cases for Pronouns

Check in Easy Croatian: 35 Tools and Means, With and Without, 39 Dative/Locative/Instrumental Plural

Introducing Instrumental Case

It's not a box used for instruments, it's a grammatical case! Well... actually it has something to do with tools and instruments, among other things. It's used to indicate manner of doing an action, tools used, and of course certain prepositions need it!

The instrumental case (abbreviation: ins. or I) is a very cheap case: one has to remember only endings for singular, since it's always equal to the dative in plural! Now, isn't it easier than expected? Here is the scheme for nouns:

casema-nounsmi-nounsn-nounsa-nounsi-nouns
nom.sg.---œ-a-
acc.sg.-a-u
dat.sg.-u(+)i-i
gen.sg./dual-a-e-i
ins.sg.-œm-om-i, -ju
nom.pl.-[œv]+i-a-e-i
acc.pl.-[œv]e
dat./ins.pl.-[œv]+ima-ima-ama-ima
gen.pl.-[œv]a-a-a-i

Recall that symbol œ means 'o or e, depending on the previous sound(s), according to the e/o rule'. The rule is always the same, I've introduced it in 10 M-Nouns and the o/e Rule.

There's a small complication: some i-nouns can also have -ju in instrumental sg., instead of -i. If an i-noun ends on -t in nom., it 'fuses' with -ju to make -ću; also sometimes lj is found instead of l; other assimilations are possible as well. (If you are interested in the precise definition of this sound change, check 34 Degrees of Adjectives, J-Softening.) For instance:

krv "blood" → krvi or krvlju
mast "fat" → masti or mašću
sol "salt" → soli or solju

However, many i-nouns like noć, kost etc. have only the -i form of the ins. sg. It's perfectly OK to use only the -i forms for all i-nouns!

Now the chart for adjectives. This is the definitive chart — we're missing just one more case, the vocative case, but for adjectives it's the same as the nominative. So, the chart:

casemamin            f            
nom.sg.-, -i-, -i      -œ-a
acc.sg.-œg(a)-u
dat.sg.-œm(u), -ome-oj
gen.sg.-œg(a)-e
ins.sg.-im-om
dual (2-4)-a-e
nom.pl.-i-a-e
acc.pl.-e
dat./ins.pl.-im
gen.pl.-ih

We must also list forms of personal pronouns:

case1st2nd3rd m    3rd n    3rd f   
nom.sg. ja ti on ono ona
acc.sg. mene / me tebe / te njega / ganju / ju, je
gen.sg. nje / je
dat.sg. meni / mi tebi / ti njemu / munjoj / joj
ins.sg. mnom tobom njim njom
nom.pl. mi vi oni ona one
acc./gen.pl. nas / nas vas / vas njih / ih
dat./ins.pl. nama / nam vama / vam njima / im

There are no short (clitic) forms — instrumentals of personal pronouns can be anywhere in the sentence (clitic forms in plural apply only to dative).

Use Without Prepositions

Why is this case used for? It can be used with or without prepositions. Without prepositions, it means means, or medium of movement. For instance, with verb putujem, putovao "travel", and nouns šuma f "forest", cësta f "road" and vlak mi "train"; and using adjectives brz "fast" and velik "big", one can construct following sentences where all nouns are in the instrumental case standing for 'means' or 'medium' (you're traveling through...):

Putujem brzim vlakom. "I'm traveling by (a) fast train."
Putujem velikom šumom. "I'm traveling through (a) big forest."
Putujem brzom cëstom. "I'm traveling on (a) fast road."

Some more examples, illustrating 'tool-use':

Pišem olovkom. "I'm writing with (a) pen." olovka f "pen"
Radim čekićem. "I'm working with (a) hammer." čekić mi "hammer"
Slikam kistom. "I'm painting with (a) brush." kist mi "brush"

Although English distinguishes such 'tool-use' from 'means', Croatian does not.

We see that, without prepositions, it's used to state that one is using a train or road as means to travel, or some tools, but can also mean what one travels through. The last use can be stated also with the preposition kroz + noun in acc.:

Putujem kroz šumu "I'm traveling through forest"

Use With Preposition s(a) "with"

The instrumental is used also with prepositions, mainly with preposition s(a). It states 'company', and roughly corresponds to English "with":

Putujem s bratom. "I'm traveling with brother."
Igram se s mačkom. "I'm playing with (the) cat."

How is it supposed to be pronounced?! Well, together with the following word, so /sbratom/, /smačkom/, etc. Some people pronounce it separately, with a vowel similar to e in English "the". When the following word starts with an s-, z-, š-, ž-, or with 1st pers. mnom, the alternative form sa is used instead of s:

Jedem sendvič sa sirom. "I'm eating (a) sandwich with cheese."
Moj brat putuje sa mnom. "My brother is traveling with me."
Igram se sa sestrom. "I'm playing with (the) sister."

Some people use sa in all circumstances. It's discouraged in the Standard Croatian.

You will occasionally hear people use:

Putujem s vlakom.
Pišem s olovkom.

This is also considered not a good use. People understand it, and this is the norm in some dialects, but it's not considered good Croatian. (I will briefly cover dialects and regional variants later.)

So, an approximate rule would be: when in English you have "with blah blah" you should use in Croatian s(a) + instrumental of "blah blah"; but if it means the tool use ("writing with a pen") where you should use instrumental only.

Bear in mind that the instrumental is used with some other prepositions as well, and the preposition s(a) can be used with some other cases, having a completely different meaning! It's not that simple.

Exercise

JavaScript must be enabled. You don't have to use my special notation (e.g. ë) in answers, normal spelling will do as well. Letter case is ignored.

Fill in the following sentences, using nouns autobus "bus", päs "dog", noväc "money", and adjectives oštär "sharp", star "old" and loš "bad". Don't forget the o/e rule:

Rëžem kruh . "I'm cutting bread with a sharp knife."
Igram se s . "I'm playing with an old dog."
Putovali smo . "We traveled with a bad bus."
Platio säm . "I paid with money."

Fill in the right forms jaje "egg", nož "knife", šunka "ham" and preposition s(a):

Jedem sendvič . "I'm eating a sandwich with egg."
Jedem sendvič . "I'm eating a sandwich with ham."

 

Updated 2014-11-06 (v. 0.4)

8 comments:

Duja said...

"Some people use sa in all circumstances, but it's
considered a very bad practice in Croatian (however, it's common in Serbian)"

Not a big deal, ali pravilo (a i praksa) u srpskom je isto kao i u hrvatskom: "s" je podrazumijevani oblik, a "sa" se koristi samo kad eufonija to zahtijeva. Tako da bi mogao i obrisati to u zagradi. Doduše, neki manje pismeni misle da je obrnuto pa pišu , ali takvih ima svugdje...

Daniel N. said...

Ma znam, ali u hrvatskom imaš ljude koje će druge ispravljati na forumu, u običnom razgovoru itd. kad kažu sa gdje treba s. Mnogim ljudima se to čini kao katastrofalna pogreška. Možda je ovo previše informacija za onog koji se tek želi sporazumijevati. Preradit ću ovo, i reći tek da mnogi govore uvijek sa, ali da je pravilo u standardu s/sa.

Problem je obašnjavati nešto kad se pravila u neformalnoj komunikaciji dosta razlikuju od onih koje lektori guraju u književnosti i novinama, a tu je i dodatni problem nekoliko sličnih standarda, a tu je i dodatni problem određene jezične netrepeljivosti kod dijela govornika prema određenim formama, riječima itd.

Moj cilj je opisati sve, od onog u ozbiljnim novinama do onog gdje ljudi na forumu pišu (ili govore na lokalnom radiju) miješajući svoj domaći govor (dijalekt, je li) i standard.

Nažalost ja sam amater ali netko mora nešto i napraviti...

Duja said...

Ma razumijem. Svaka ti čast na projektu. I ja sam nekad davno želio napisati nešto slično, ali nisam nikad ozbiljno započeo. Mislim da odlično objašnjavaš stvari (o mnogima ni ja nisam razmišljao na jednostavne načine koje predlažeš). A uvijek je teško naći ravnotežu između tačnosti i količine informacija kojima zatrpavaš čitaoca (u početničkom štivu, jednostavnosti ipak treba dati prednost).

Daniel N. said...

Kao što rekoh -- svaka pomoć (što uključuje i nalaženje grešaka!) je dobrodošla. Zauzvrat nudim zahvalu na blogu, pivo u Zagrebu ili na Jadranu odnosno sve skupa.

Trenutno radim na prilozima intenziteta i količine. Koliko sam uspio shvatiti vlastitom analizom, postoje 4 konteksta njihove upotrebe:

intenzitet glagola: jako pada kiša (tu može slabo, dosta, malo...)
intenzitet pridjeva: juha je jako vruća (tu može i dosta, malo...)
količina: imam puno problema (tu može mnogo, previše, dosta, malo...)
intenzitet komparativa: došao je mnogo kasnije (tu može i malo, puno, dosta...)

Trenutno još razmišljam kako to predstaviti na najjednostavniji način.

lp Daniel

narukio2000 said...

If I wanted to ask someone's parents for example(Mogu li govoriti s Azrom) (Note:The girls name is Azra), How can i tell which(s/sa) to use? Would I pronounce it as if (s/sa) was part of the noun for example(S-Azrom) or is it separate?

Daniel N. said...

It's perfectly OK both to use s Azrom and pronounce it as one word (sAzrom). You should use sa mainly in front of s and z, e.g. sa Sanjom (if she were Sanja).

Some people use sa all the time, it's not standard but can be heard a lot.

narukio2000 said...

Am i able to freely choose whether to use "om" or "em" for instrumental masculine and neuter nouns?

Daniel N. said...

No, it depends on the sounds words ends with; if it ends on -č, -ć, -š, -đ, -ž, -j, -nj, -lj, -, -št, -žd, then you must use -em; otherwise, you must use -om.

It's the o/e rule, the same rule whether you use -ovi or -evi in masculine nouns with "long plural" and the same rule which endings you'll use for adjectives.

check here

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