I’m Venezuelan. I moved to Croatia. I decided to learn Croatian.
This combination alone is already brave — some might say foolish. But nothing — absolutely nothing — prepared me for na vs u.
Two letters. Two prepositions. One daily reminder that confidence is temporary and grammar is forever.
When Spanish Logic Completely Fails You
In Spanish, we live peacefully with en.
En la casa. En la ciudad. En la playa. En el trabajo.
En doesn’t ask questions. En doesn’t judge you. En is a loyal friend who has never betrayed me.
Croatian, on the other hand, looked friendly at first:
- u = in
- na = on
Simple, right? In or on. I learned this in week one.
“Great,” I thought. “I got this. Finally, something logical.”
Narrator voice: He did not, in fact, get this.
The Betrayal
Here’s what happened when I tried to apply logic:
| What I said | What’s correct | My confusion level |
|---|---|---|
| U plaži | Na plaži | 🤨 okay… |
| Na Zagrebu | U Zagrebu | 😤 wait what |
| U Hvaru | Na Hvaru | 😐 I give up |
| U poslu | Na poslu | 💀 |
The beach is not in. It’s on. The city is not on. It’s in. Islands are on, except when they’re not. Work is a surface, apparently.
At this point, I stopped asking “why” and started apologizing preemptively every time I opened my mouth.
Croatian Prepositions Have Feelings
Here’s what I’ve learned after months of gentle corrections from patient Croatians:
They don’t randomly choose na or u. They feel them.
You’re u Zagrebu, but na Hvaru. You’re na moru (at the sea), na poslu (at work), na kavi (at coffee).
You don’t go in coffee — you go on coffee. You don’t go in vacation — you go on vacation (na godišnjem). You’re not in a meeting — you’re on a meeting (na sastanku).
The unofficial rules, as far as I can tell:
- Cities are containers — you climb inside them
- Islands are surfaces — you stand on top of them (they’re in the water, so you’re on them?)
- Activities are also surfaces — because life is a series of things you’re standing on, metaphorically
- The sea is always na — you’re never in the sea, even when you’re swimming in it
Meanwhile, I’m just trying to order bread at the pekara without committing a grammatical felony.
Real Conversations I’ve Had
Me: “Idem u Hvar ovaj vikend!”
Croatian friend: “Na Hvar.”
Me: “…that’s what I said.”
Croatian friend: “No. Na Hvar. It’s an island.”
Me: “But I’m going TO it. Inside the ferry. Then inside the town.”
Croatian friend: patient smile
Me: ”…”
Croatian friend: “Na Hvar.”
Me: “Na Hvar.”
This happens approximately three times per week.
Living “Na Learning Croatian”
At some point I realized something profound: I’m always na something.
Na učenju. (On learning.) Na pokušaju. (On trying.) Na rubu mentalnog sloma zbog padeža. (On the edge of a mental breakdown because of cases.)
Learning Croatian isn’t about memorizing rules — it’s about developing intuition. You stop translating and start imagining where you are:
Am I inside this place, like a person in a box? Or am I somehow on top of it, like a person on a raft?
Sometimes this mental exercise works. Most of the time it absolutely does not. But occasionally — occasionally — I get it right on the first try, and for that brief moment, I feel like a god.
Then someone asks me about cases and I’m humbled again.
What Na vs U Taught Me (Besides Humility)
After a year of preposition warfare, here’s what I know:
- Confidence disappears approximately 0.3 seconds after your first correction
- Everyone will correct you — friends, strangers, the lady at the market, small children
- Small children are the worst because they’re right and they know it
- Fluency is built one awkward, corrected sentence at a time
- Croatians appreciate the effort even when you butcher their beautiful language
And most importantly: If you’re confused about na vs u, congratulations — you’re officially learning Croatian.
Because if you weren’t speaking it, no one would correct you at all.
So here I am: Venezuelan in Croatia, permanently confused, eternally na something, and deeply grateful for patient friends who only laugh a little when I announce I’m going “u more” instead of “na more.”
If you’re struggling too — dobrodošao u klub. Or wait, is it na klub?
You know what, let’s just be wrong together.