Pronouns: Declension

01

'tko' (who) and 'što' (what)

These two have no gender or number; they simply change for case. Each line below is one case, in the order the noun tables use.

• tko who (subject) - koga of whom, komu to whom, koga whom (object), kome about whom, kim with whom
• što what (subject) - čega of what, čemu to what, što what (object), čemu about what, čim with what

Two of them repeat: for tko, the object form koga is spelt like the genitive - the same borrowing that animate masculine nouns make - and for što, the object form is simply što again.

• Tko pjeva?

  Who is singing? (subject)

• Tko vas mijenja u uredu?

  Who replaces you at the office? (subject)

• Što je to?

  What is that?

• Nema na čemu.

  You're welcome. (fixed phrase, with čemu after the preposition na)

02

Indefinite and Negative Pronouns

Built on these are a family that declines the same way: nešto (something), ništa (nothing), nitko (no one).

• Trebaš li nešto?

  Do you need anything?

• Nitko nije jeftiniji.

  No one is cheaper.

• Tražim nešto drugo.

  I am looking for something else.

• Nemam skoro ništa novca.

  I have almost no money.

03

Interrogative-Relative 'koji'

koji (which, who) declines like an adjective, agreeing in gender, number and case. It does two jobs: it asks which one, and it opens a relative clause ("the person who..."). As a question word it stands at the front.

• Koji ti je najdraži film?

  Which is your favourite movie?

• Koju knjigu čitaš?

  Which book are you reading?

• koj-u feminine accusative, to match knjigu - the question word takes the case of the thing it asks about

Its work as a relative pronoun has its own section further down.

04

Demonstratives and Possessives Decline Too

The pointing words ovaj, taj, onaj and the possessives moj, tvoj follow the adjective pattern; they have their own topics. The key point is that no pronoun stays fixed - every one takes case endings.

• Ne znam nijednu pjesmu tog benda.

  I don't know a single song by that band.

• Dao sam poklon svom ocu.

  I gave a gift to my father.

05

'sve' and 'svi' (everything, everyone)

The quantifying pronouns sve (everything) and svi (everyone) decline too.

• Svi znaju za ovaj problem.

  Everyone knows about this problem.

• Može sve. Nema što ne može.

  It can do everything. There is nothing it can't do.

06

The Relative 'koji' Links Clauses

As a relative pronoun, koji joins a describing clause to a noun. It takes that noun's gender and number, but its case comes from its own job inside the clause it opens - which is why the two below look different.

• Vi ste prva osoba koja je to primijetila.

  You are the first person who noticed it.

• koj-a feminine, from osoba; nominative, because inside its own clause it is the one doing the noticing

• Izaberi cipele koje ti se sviđaju.

  Choose the shoes that you like.

• koj-e feminine plural, from cipele

07

Why It Matters

Because Croatian word order is free, the case ending on a pronoun is what reveals its role - koga is the object "whom", komu the recipient "to whom".

• Koga vidiš?

  Whom do you see?

• Komu si dao knjigu?

  To whom did you give the book?