The Most Used Croatian Word*

Photo by Tasha Kostyuk on Unsplash

After spending two posts on Croatian cases, it's time to get into the most used word in Croatian* - može.

Može can be used to say "yes". Može can be used to say "I can". Or, as I found out early in my Croatian learning experience, može and a nod can mean "I don't really understand, but I'll act like I do so we can keep the conversation moving."

Može can also be the way to begin a question. In this scenario, the word li must follow. Let's get into the song for today, Može li? by a band from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Dubioza kolektiv. 

As we usually do, I'd suggest listening to the whole song before analyzing anything. Listen for the question "Može li?" and see if you can find anything resembling an answer to all the questions. 


The song begins with the question: Može li Bosanac biti vegeterijanac?

If you're just beginning to learn Croatian (or Bosnian or Serbian for that matter), take a minute or two to try to figure this sentence out. Find words you know. What do you think može li means?

Simply put, može li means "can". I get stuck here a bit, because I feel like it's better to translate it as "Is it possible? But this is a song, the lyrics are delightfully simple but memorable so let's stick to "can". 

Može li Bosanac biti vegeterijanac? "Can a Bosnian be a vegetarian?"

The expected answer to the rhetorical question of course is "NO!". And thus begins a long list of hypothetical possibilities the song expresses that are virutally impossible. There are some fun ones in here and even if you're not learning Croatian, you may enjoy finding out what they are by turning on CC. 

Anyway, this all leads us to the chorus, which in my opinion is absolutely brilliant. 

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Let me just pause here and say that I've been looking for a Croatian equivolent of Dr. Seuss ever since we began having kids in Croatia. Here is one possiblity. Kako živi Antuntun.


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Generally, I haven't found much in this part of the world that matches Dr. Seuss' combination of rhyme, creativity and memoriblity. The chorus of Može li? challenges that claim though. Here's how the chorus goes:

Znam da ne može al' može li da može? Bilo bi dobro ako ikako bi moglo. Ma znam ne može al' može li da može? Al' sve se može kad se male ruke slože.

Like many original songs or poems, this song is very difficult to translate into English while keeping its simplicity and meaning. But let me make 3 main points before offering a rough translation below.

  1. Pronounciation. If you're learning Croatian and you want a good tongue-twister that will help you learn often-used words and phrases, this chorus is a great place to start. If you play guitar, the chords are super-easy (am, dm, em). Go ahead and sing along. Work on pronunciation.
  2. Culture. The end of the chorus is a recall to THE staple of children's songs in Croatia, Kad se male ruke slože. There is no song that explains the value that, at least for me, is one of the biggest cultural differences between the United States and Croatia than this one. 
  3. "Jel?" One of the confusing words for me when I began learning Croatian was "jel?" I remember looking for it in my little pocket dictionary and not finding it and getting frustrated because I heard it ALL the time! (Now I use it incredibly too frequently.) But jel comes from je li - the more frequently heard way to start a question. 

Here's how I would translate the chorus. 

  I know it can't be but could it be? It would be great if it were at all possible. I know it can't be but could it be? Everything is possible when small hands work together. 

There's a lot more that could be said. I feel like almost every Croatian phrase has its own little drawer in my head which I could open and talk about how I learned it, what pneumonic device I use to remember it and memorable moments when I've used it (either correctly or incorrectly). 

But we'll build on this question a little bit in a future post. For now, if you're learning Croatian, see how many sentences you can write using the phrase može li?


Footnotes

*When I first moved to Croatia I felt like this was the word I heard the most. There are lists, like this one, that show the frequency of Croatian words and demonstrate that my thesis is false. 


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