If you thought that learning the affirmative form of the future tense was easy, the negative form will really be a piece of cake. All you need is to add ne- in front of the auxiliary verb htjeti (will) to make it negative – and the rest is the same as in the affirmative form! Yes, one more time – learning Croatian made easy! 🙂

Glagol htjeti – niječni oblik The verb will – negative form |
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Jednina Singular |
Množina Plural |
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1. | (ja) neću | I will not (I won’t) | 1. | (mi) nećemo | we will not (we won’t) |
2. | (ti) nećeš | you will not (you won’t) | 2. | (vi) nećete | you will not (you won’t) |
3. | (on) neće | he (m.) will not (he won’t) | 3. | (oni) neće | they (m.) will not (they won’t) |
(ona) neće | she (f.) will not (she won’t) | (one) neće | they (f.) will not (they won’t) | ||
(ono) neće | it (n.) will not (it won’t) | (ona) neće | they (n.) will not (they won’t) |
So, let’s use again the verb učiti (to learn) and have a look at its negative future tense forms:
Futur prvi glagola učiti – niječni oblik The future tense of the verb to learn – negative form |
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Jednina Singular |
Množina Plural |
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1. | (ja) neću učiti | I won’t learn | 1. | (mi) nećemo učiti | we won’t learn |
2. | (ti) nećeš učiti | you won’t learn | 2. | (vi) nećete učiti | you won’t learn |
3. | (on) neće učiti | he (m.) won’t learn | 3. | (oni) neće učiti | they (m.) won’t learn |
(ona) neće učiti | she (f.) won’t learn | (one) neće učiti | they (f.) won’t learn | ||
(ono) neće učiti* | it (n.) won’t learn | (ona) neće učiti | they (n.) won’t learn |
*In Croatian, ono (it) does not refer to an object, but to any neuter noun, even if it means a person, like dijete (child). So, ono neće učiti can mean dijete neće učiti.
Some more examples:
(Ja) neću plivati u bazenu. – I won’t swim in the pool.
(Ti) nećeš jesti rafiole. – You won’t eat rafioli cakes.
(Mi) nećemo kuhati danas. – We won’t cook today.
(Oni) neće gledati novu predstavu. – They won’t watch the new show.
(On) neće doći prije sljedećeg ljeta. – He won’t come before next summer.
(Vi) nećete ići s njima. – You won’t go with them.
(Ona) neće spavati u hotelu. – She won’t sleep in a hotel.
Can we drop the personal pronoun (ja, ti, on…) from the sentence here, too?
As you are probably guessing from the fact that the (ja, ti, on…) are in brackets, you can use them, but you can also make the sentence without them, without changing the word order. What is more common? If it’s obvious from the context who you are talking about, it’s better to skip it.
If you read our previous post on the future tense (affirmative form), you might remember that the Croatian language makes no difference between will, shall and going to future constructions. So:
Neću plivati. = I will not / shall not / am not going to swim.
Exercise: Put the verbs in brackets into their negative future tense form.
Was this easy or what? Any questions? What else would you like us to write about?
Learning Croatian continues… Next Tuesday we are learning about the interrogative form of the future tense. If you want us to send you an email with the next Croatian grammar lesson, put your email address here.
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Related Croatian language topics that you might want to learn about:
Thank you, Ensar! I’m glad that you are finding it useful! 🙂
This was a good way how to learn the future tense!*****