treba & valja

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Constructions with “treba”: trebalo bi, valja, ima da, sme se, vredi

You have already met the verb trebati in two roles. In “Core modal verbs” it was the impersonal “should, need to”: treba da radim “I need to work”. In “Dative impersonals” it meant “to be needed”: treba mi odmor “I need a rest”, literally “a rest is needed to me”. This lesson brings both together with the neighbours that say “ought to”, “should have”, “it’s worth it”, “it’s allowed” and “it isn’t allowed”.

The two old friends, treba da and treba mi, get only a quick refresher; their own lessons have the details. The others get more room: each has its own strength and its own setting, from the quiet advice of trebalo bi to the parent’s shout of ima da.

A refresher: treba da + present tense

The neutral treba da is “should, need to”: softer than an order, it is advice or what can reasonably be expected. As “Core modal verbs” showed, treba is frozen in the 3rd person, and the verb after da shows who is meant: treba da radim “I need to work”, treba da radiš “you need to work”, treba da rade “they need to work”. The same construction says what is expected or planned, like English “is supposed to” (the last row).

The standard is the impersonal treba da idem. In conversation you will often hear the personal trebam da idem, trebaš da ideš too, and in standard Croatian the personal trebam ići is the norm. Say and write treba da yourself, and recognise the personal forms by ear.

On its own, ne treba is the everyday polite “no, thanks”, for example at the till:

Treba li vam kesa? — Ne treba, hvala. “Do you need a bag?” “No, thanks, I don’t.”

A refresher: treba mi + noun

The second life of trebati is “to be needed”, taken apart in full in “Dative impersonals”. One thing is key here: the thing needed is the grammatical subject, in the nominative (the dictionary form of the noun), and the verb agrees with it in number. The person sits in the dative, the “to whom” case (mi, ti, mu “to me, to you, to him”), and has no say in the number. Spanish me gusta el libro / me gustan los libros works the same way.

In the past the verb takes the gender and number of the thing in the same way: Trebala mi je tvoja pomoć “I needed your help” (more in “Dative impersonals”).

In conversation you will also hear the English pattern, with the person as the subject and the thing in the accusative, the object case: trebam knjigu, trebam pomoć “I need a book, I need help”. The standard language prefers treba mi knjiga, treba mi pomoć. Agreement works the same way: the standard is Trebaju mi ključevi, though in fast speech you may hear treba mi ključevi. Recognise these by ear, and keep to the standard yourself.

trebalo bi and trebalo je: “ought to” and “should have”

trebalo bi is trebalo, the past form of trebati in the neuter, plus bi, the Serbian “would” (from “Conditional I”). Together they give a softened “ought to, it would be good to”, one notch quieter than treba da: a tactful suggestion rather than advice. It takes da + the present tense, and trebalo bi never changes for person or gender.

Cheat sheet

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Constructions with “treba”: trebalo bi, valja, ima da, sme se, vredi

Ways to say “need to, worth it, allowed”. At the core, trebati in two roles: treba da + verb “need to do” and treba mi + noun “I need a thing”. All except treba mi are impersonal: one form for everyone.

treba da + present: neutral “should, need to”

treba never changes; the verb after da shows who. Standard: treba da idem; personal trebam da idem is heard in speech (standard in Croatian: trebam ići). “No, thanks”: Ne treba, hvala.

treba mi + noun: “to be needed”

The thing needed is the subject; the verb agrees with it. The person is in the dative (mi, ti, mu). Past: Trebala mi je tvoja pomoć. Heard in speech: trebam knjigu, treba mi ključevi; standard: treba mi knjiga, trebaju mi ključevi.

trebalo bi “ought to”, trebalo je “should have”

trebalo (neuter) + bi or je + da with the present. With a thing it agrees: Trebala bi mi tvoja pomoć. Colloquial: trebao sam da kažem. Likewise valjalo bi. Blunter: Moraš da se odmoriš.

valja: “one should”, folksy

Advice, sayings: Valja poživeti pa videti. ne valja = “it’s no good”; Tako valja = “that’s the way”.

ima da / nema da: “you will!”, “don’t you dare!”

sme se / ne sme se: allowed / not allowed

Ovde se ne sme pušiti. You can’t smoke here. Sme li se ovde parkirati? Is parking allowed here? To se ne sme! That’s not allowed!

vredi / isplati se: “it’s worth it, it pays”