# Croatian: I want to invite you for coffee



## Discipulus91

Hello,

I go every year on holiday to Croatia and I have met by accident a few days ago a Bosnian lady who said that Croatian and Bosnian language is nearly the same (she also likes to go to Croatia on holiday).
How can I say in Croatian: "I want invite you to a coffee"?

I thought something like "Marim pozivati ti".. 

But a Croatian says to me "Htio bi te pozvat na kavu". What mean the first two words and what form is "pozvat"? I only know the infinitive with -i.
Thanks beforehand!


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## Gavran

Firstly, all of you non-native speakers may, for all practical purposes, consider Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian and Montenegrian the same language. I am not a linguist and I don't want to go into official definitions, but there is no doubt that, if you say something in official Croatian, all others will have very little to none whatsoever problems understanding you. Same goes for all other combinations. There is the occasional different word here and there, but... *shrug* For example, I'm a Croat, living in Croatia and very aware of most of the differences between languages, and SOMETIMES, when I'm reading a text, I have to read up to five lines of text to determine which language I am actually reading. And that works even for Croatian and Serbian which have one whole class of words with an evident (albeit not too important) difference.

So, "Htio bi te pozvat na kavu" is perfectly understandable for everybody. Except it's not 100% correct. This is:

"Htio bih te pozvati na kavu." (corrections underlined)

"Htio bih" means "I would like (to)" and "pozvati" *is* the infinitive.

"pozvat" is more slangish and basically shortened; we like to shorten things; somethin' like "I'd" instead of "I would". It'd be officially correct if you wrote it with an apostrophe - pozvat' - but that is a matter of literary style and now I'm going too far  When you pronounce it, most likely nobody will notice the difference.

Also "bi" is a valid word, but used for second- and third-person singular ("ti bi / on bi" - "you would / he would"), while "bih" is direcly first-person singular, as explained above.

And, for the record, all of this works for "all four languages".


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## Gavran

BTW, what would be more "loose" is "Hoćemo (li) na kavu?" ("Wanna go have coffee?")


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## Discipulus91

Thank you very much, Gavran! But this lady has a boyfriend so I will not ask her 

Another question: In one month I make holiday in Trogir. You often hear the rule "in north and middle Dalmatia they Speak Cakavisch." But on the maps 
like Čakavisch – Wikipedia you see that they only speak immediately on the coast this dialect - and the on big part of Croatia they Speak Stokavisch, the standart Croatian (even Sibenik on this map Stokavisch..)?!

I know learn in a group a few times Croatian with Stokavisch, it is then very difficult in Trogir?


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## iezik

I think it should be fairly easy in Trogir.

I would compare the language situation (foreigner speaking Croatian in Trogir) with a foreigner speaking in Munich in German language. Any German speaking Bavarian with her colleagues would switch to much more standard German when speaking with a foreigner if willing to communicate. Likewise, any Croat speaking shtokavian would switch to much more standard Croatian if wishing to communicate.


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## Gavran

iezik said:


> Likewise, any Croat speaking shtokavian would switch to much more standard Croatian if wishing to communicate.


Erm... Shtokavian _is_ the standard...


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## iezik

Gavran said:


> Erm... Shtokavian _is_ the standard...


I see. I should have gone to bed earlier that evening. Somehow I read that word as Chakavian


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## Discipulus91

Thank you all!  But how it is now?: Do the people in the big part of Dalmatia speak  - contrary to the popular claims - shtokavian and only immediately on the coast they speak Čakavish? Because on the map Dalmatia extends into the inner land.


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## Panceltic

Yes, Chakavian is confined to Istria, islands and a very very narrow strip of coast. This is the map of Chakavian area at the end of the 20th century: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/53/Croatia_Dialects_Cakavian.svg

Compare also this map: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c4/Croatian_dialects.PNG


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## Zec

Hello, Discipulus91

To add more detail to Panceltic's answer, not only does most of Dalmatia speak Štokavian, but even those Čakavian areas on the coastline are slowly "transforming" into Štokavian, to the point that the only significant difference between them and the standard language is that they are ikavian, and the standard is ijekavian (that is, wherever there is an "ije" or "je" in the standard, there is an "i" in these dialects, for example, they would say "mliko" instead of "mlijeko", meaning "milk"). Probably the most famous example is Split, where most people don't even say "ča" anymore - if you look carefully at Panceltic's second map, you will see the city's area is coloured green, as štokavian. To a smaller extent, such changes are happening in Trogir as well. In any case, as iezik has told you, everyone in Croatia understands the standard language, so you will have absolutely no trouble communicating if you use it.

As for your other question, "Hoćemo na kavu?" is the most usual way to ask the question in a friendly conversation.

Hope this helps


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## Discipulus91

Thank you Panceltic and Zec for your very useful and interestings answers! Sry that I have forgotten to thank you!

Greets


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