You already know the dative case well “from the inside”. It is the case of the receiver (dajem bratu “I give (it) to my brother”), of the person who needs something (treba mi “I need”), of the owner (ime mi je Ana “my name is Ana”). Almost always it comes on its own, with no preposition. But the dative also has a small group of prepositions. There are just five common ones: k(a), prema, nasuprot, uprkos and zahvaljujući.
The dative has far fewer prepositions than the genitive, but each of them works hard: prema has three meanings, and uprkos carries the whole idea of “despite”. The good news for an English speaker is that each of them has a close English partner: towards, according to, despite, thanks to, opposite. So the real work of this lesson is the ending: every one of these five is followed by the dative.
k / ka: “towards”
k and its variant ka mean “towards”: movement in the direction of something. ka gradu “towards the city”, ka reci “towards the river”, ka izlazu “towards the exit”. The two forms alternate rather like English a and an: the next sound decides. Before words beginning with k, g or h you must use ka, so that two similar consonants don’t collide: ka kući “towards the house”, ka gradu, ka hotelu “towards the hotel”. Before other sounds the spelling rules allow both: k mostu and ka mostu “towards the bridge”, k meni and ka meni “towards me”. In speech you will mostly hear ka.
ka also leads to goals in a figurative sense: ka boljem životu “towards a better life”, ka slobodi “towards freedom”, ka zvezdama “to the stars”. In space, prema says the same “towards”: Idi prema stanici “Head towards the station”. But English “to” does far more. Going to see someone, at home or for an appointment, is kod with the genitive: Idem kod druga “I’m going to my friend’s”, Idem kod lekara “I’m going to the doctor’s”; the dative with no preposition works too: Idem majci “I’m going to Mum’s”. Getting to a place is do with the genitive: Kako da dođem do pošte? “How do I get to the post office?”
Direction versus destination: ka gradu or u grad
ka and prema with the dative show where the arrow points: movement towards something, with no promise of arriving. u and na with the accusative name the goal itself: you will end up inside it or on it (lesson “Accusative prepositions (direction)”). English draws the same line with “walk towards the city” and “go into town”.
Cheat sheet
The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.
Prepositions with the dative
Five prepositions, and every one of them takes only the dative.
The full list
k / ka: direction
Direction versus destination
prema: three meanings, one case
Concession, gratitude, “opposite”
🍪No advertising cookies — only the essential storage that keeps you signed in and saves your progress. Privacy Policy