Why Croatian to English is harder than it looks
No articles, seven cases. The ending on the noun carries what English puts in “a,” “the,” “to” and “with.” Those words have to be added back from context, and short messages provide the least of it.
Word order is free, English word order is not. Croatian can front the word it wants to emphasise because the endings keep the meaning clear. Translated in the same order, the English comes out scrambled or oddly stressed.
Aspect is not tense. Whether an action was completed is marked in the verb itself, and English shows it with a different form entirely. This is the distinction that most often changes the meaning rather than the style.
Dialects vary a lot for a small country. Kajkavian and Čakavian differ noticeably from standard Štokavian Croatian, and people write in them. Standard Croatian translates most reliably.
Written by Hardik Vegad, Co-founder, Translatify. Last updated .
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