taj / ta / to; onaj / ona / ono

Pointing to Other Things

Level 1

Taj, ta and to often point to something by the listener or already mentioned. Onaj, ona and ono can point farther away from both participants.

How It Works

A useful first contrast is ovaj near the speaker, taj near the listener and onaj farther from both. Actual conversation also uses them to refer back to mentioned things or to create a sense of distance.

The singular gender sets are taj, ta, to and onaj, ona, ono. Choose the appropriate noun agreement: ta knjiga but taj stol. Case endings later change these basic forms.

Do not equate every English that with one Croatian form. Look at what the speaker is pointing to and what the listener can already identify. The same visible object may be described differently when the participants change places.

Examples (4)

  1. Taj stol je slobodan.

    That table is free.

    Taj agrees with masculine stol.

  2. Ta knjiga je moja.

    That book is mine.

    Ta agrees with feminine knjiga.

  3. Ona kuća je daleko.

    That house over there is far away.

    Demonstrative ona modifies kuća; it is not the subject pronoun she.

  4. Ono selo je malo.

    That village over there is small.

    Ono agrees with neuter selo.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

taj / ta / to; onaj / ona / onoLevel 1Pointing to Other Things

Learn This First

The near-speaker demonstrative provides the initial agreement pattern for the other demonstratives.

Words in This Pattern

tajonaj