Teach Yourself Complete Croatian Book and 2 Audio CDs
353 page Book and 2CDs
Are you looking for a complete course in Croatian which takes you effortlessly from beginner to confident speaker? Whether you are starting from scratch, or are just out of practice, Complete Croatian will guarantee success! Now fully updated to make your language learning experience fun and interactive. You can still rely on the benefits of a top language teacher and our years of teaching experience, but now with added learning features within the course and online. The course is structured in thematic units and the emphasis is placed on communication, so that you effortlessly progress from introducing yourself and dealing with everyday situations, to using the phone and talking about work.By the end of this course, you will be at Level B2 of the Common European Framework for Languages: Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party.Learn effortlessly with a new easy-to-read page design and interactive features:
NOT GOT MUCH TIME?
One, five and ten-minute introductions to key principles to get you started.
AUTHOR INSIGHTS
Lots of instant help with common problems and quick tips for success, based on the author's many years of experience.
GRAMMAR TIPS
Easy-to-follow building blocks to give you a clear understanding.
USEFUL VOCABULARY
Easy to find and learn, to build a solid foundation for speaking.
DIALOGUES
Read and listen to everyday dialogues to help you speak and understand fast.
PRONUNCIATION
Don't sound like a tourist! Perfect your pronunciation before you go.
TEST YOURSELF
Tests in the book and online to keep track of your progress.
EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
Extra online articles at: www.teachyourself.com to give you a richer understanding of the culture and history of Croatia.
TRY THIS
Innovative exercises illustrate what you've learnt and how to use it.Enjoyable to use - cultural information sections give useful information about the culture of Croatian speakers.
Practise speaking and listening skills with two hours of accompanying recorded material available on CD.
The first widely available title on Croatian only
Comprehensive - covers a wide range of topics and language structures for learners who want to progress quickly beyond the basics to a level where they can communicate with confidence
Practice exercises in every unit help you remember what you've learnt
Table of Contents:
Introduction
The Country
The Language
About the Book
How to Use the Book
Pronunciation and Reading
Stress in Croatian
Abbreviations and Symbols
In the hotel
In the café
In town
I want to buy...
In the restaurant
Come to my place
How old are you?
What kind of flat do you have?
I like swimming
On an excursion
Return tickets
I have the telephone number
On the beach
If it rains
How do you feel?
Business contract
In Osijek
Three letters
Key to the Exercises
Summary of Language Patterns
Croatian-English Vocabulary
English-Croatian Vocabulary
Glossary of Grammatical Terms
Grammatical Index
Taking it Further
Teach Yourself Croatian starts with the basics but moves at a lively pace to give you a good level of understanding, speaking and writing. You will have lots of opportunity to practise the kind of language you will need to be able to communicate with confidence and understand Croatian culture.
About the Author
David Norris, the author, has taught Serbian and Croatian Studies since 1980. He is currently Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham.
About the Croatian Language
Croatian language is a South Slavic language which is used primarily by the inhabitants of Croatia and Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina and parts of the Croatian diaspora. It is one of the standard versions of the Central-South Slavic diasystem.
Croatian is based on the Ijekavian pronunciation of Štokavian dialect (with some influence from Čakavian and Kajkavian) and written with the Croatian alphabet.
The modern Croatian standard language is a continuous outgrowth of more than nine hundred years of literature written in a mixture of Croatian Church Slavonic and the vernacular language. Croatian Church Slavonic was abandoned by the mid-1400s, and Croatian as embodied in a purely vernacular literature Croatian literature has existed for more than five centuries.
Croatian, like most other Slavic languages has a rich system of inflection. Pronouns, nouns, adjectives and some numerals decline (change the word ending to reflect case, i.e. grammatical category and function), while verbs conjugate for person and tense.
Nouns have three grammatical genders (masculine, feminine and neuter) that correspond to a certain extent with the word ending, so that most nouns ending in -a are feminine, -o and -e neutral and the rest mostly masculine with a small but important class of feminines. Grammatical gender of a noun affects the morphology of other parts of speech (adjectives, pronouns and verbs) attached to it.
Verbs are divided into two broad classes according to their aspect, which can be either perfective (signifying a completed action) or imperfective (action is incomplete or repetitive). There are seven tenses, four of which (present, perfect, future I and II) are used in contemporary standard Croatian, with the other three (aorist, imperfect and plusquamperfect) considered stylistically marked and archaic. |
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