# BCS: zbog, radi, poradi, zaradi



## Miliu

Dear foreros:

 to indicate the cause, are this four prepositions equivalent? 

Thanks.


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## Gnoj

I'd like to know that, too. I didn't know there's "poradi" and "zaradi" in BCS. We have them in Macedonian, but I've never seen them used in BCS.


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## Duya

_Radi_ and _zbog_, although sometimes confused even by native speakers, mean quite different things:


_Zbog_ means 'because of <cause>', i.e. takes the cause of the action as the argument
_Radi_ means 'for the purpose of <end>', i.e. takes the purpose of the action of the argument.

_Zarad_ (without 'i') is not often used. It is an emphatic version of 'radi'.

I've seldom heard _poradi_, but Google reveals some Croatian hits. HJP says it can mean both 'radi' and 'zbog'.


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## Gnoj

Interesting, the same analogy _zbog_/_radi_ is valid for _zaradi_/_poradi_ in Macedonian.


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## Miliu

_Zarad_ (without 'i') is not often used. It is an emphatic version of 'radi'.f the action of the argument.

I've fished this adverb from the "Hrvatskosrpsko-talijanski rječnik - Deanović-Jernej (ZG 1963)" and all of them (zarad, zaradi,poradi, radi and zbog are translated in Italian as "a causa di"="because of"): that's why I asked the differences. 

So if it's raining, zbog kiše mokar sam, but if I see black clouds nosim kišobran radi ne budem mokar: is it so?

Thanks.


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## TriglavNationalPark

Gnoj said:


> I'd like to know that, too. I didn't know there's "poradi" and "zaradi" in BCS. We have them in Macedonian, but I've never seen them used in BCS.



"Zaradi" also exists in Slovenian.


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## jadeite_85

TriglavNationalPark said:


> "Zaradi" also exists in Slovenian.



In Ukrainian too, while in Russian exists "radi".


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## Anicetus

Miliu said:


> So if it's raining, zbog kiše mokar sam, but if I see black clouds nosim kišobran radi ne budem mokar: is it so?



The first sentence is okay, but _zbog kiše sam mokar_ would be a more natural word order. However, the second one won't work at all. _Radi_ and _zbog_ are prepositions, not conjunctions, which means they can only be attached to a nominal word (a noun or an adjective, pronoun or number functioning as a noun) -- just like _u, na, o, prema, od_ etc. For example: _trčim radi zdravlja_ ("I run for health") or _putujem radi zabave_ ("I travel for fun"). They can't be used alone to introduce a clause. If you really wanted to use _radi_ to start a clause, I guess it would be grammatically correct to put the appropriate form of the "dummy pronoun" _to_ with _radi_ and then begin the clause with the final (that is, indicating purpose -- in this case) conjunction _da_: _nosim kišobran radi toga da ne budem mokar_, but that sounds rather unusual. The "_radi toga_" part is completely redundant and the most natural way here would be simply to use a final clause with _da_: _nosim kišobran da ne budem mokar_. Or maybe, _nosim kišobran da ne pokisnem_ (the verb _pokisnuti_ means "to get wet by rain"), but that's beside the point. 

Anyway, on the other hand, using _zbog toga što_ to start a causal clause isn't that unusual at all (_zbog_ with the dummy "_toga_" and then the clause beginning with the conjunction _što_). The shorter and more economical _jer_ is definitely more common, but _zbog toga što_ and _zato što_ are also used to avoid repetition.


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## !netko!

Anicetus said:


> Anyway, on the other hand, using _zbog toga što_ to start a causal clause isn't that unusual at all (_zbog_ with the dummy "_toga_" and then the clause beginning with the conjunction _što_). The shorter and more economical _jer_ is definitely more common, but _zbog toga što_ and _zato što_ are also used to avoid repetition.



The one I hear most often is _zato jer_   I went through a brief phase when I tried to stop using it when speaking, but I soon just gave up. Too much effort


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## Miliu

I've seldom heard _poradi_, but Google reveals some Croatian hits. HJP says it can mean both 'radi' and 'zbog'.[/QUOTE]

From internet: "..., ne poradi straha, nego po savjesti". And we see a third preposition that expresses the cause: po+accusative!


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## Duya

Well, it's not the cause. In _po savjesti_, _po_ simply means 'according to, by', as in _po mom mišljenju_ 'by (in) my opinion'.


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