čuvati

Serbo-Croatian

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Slavic *čuvati.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /t͡ʃǔːʋati/
• Hyphenation: ču‧va‧ti

Verb

čúvati impf (Cyrillic spelling чу́вати)

1. (transitive) to guard, protect
2. (transitive) to watch over
3. (transitive) to save, preserve, conserve
4. (reflexive) to be careful
5. (reflexive) to beware, keep away from

   čuvaj se ružnih žena ― Beware of ugly women!

Conjugation

Conjugation of čuvati

Infinitive: čuvati		Present verbal adverb: čúvajūći		Past verbal adverb: —		Verbal noun: čúvānje
Number		Singular			Plural
Person		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Verbal forms		ja	ti	on / ona / ono	mi	vi	oni / one / ona
Present		čuvam	čuvaš	čuva	čuvamo	čuvate	čuvaju
Future	Future I	čuvat ću1 čuvaću	čuvat ćeš1 čuvaćeš	čuvat će1 čuvaće	čuvat ćemo1 čuvaćemo	čuvat ćete1 čuvaćete	čuvat će1 čuvaće
	Future II	bȕdēm čuvao2	bȕdēš čuvao2	bȕdē čuvao2	bȕdēmo čuvali2	bȕdēte čuvali2	bȕdū čuvali2
Past	Perfect	čuvao sam2	čuvao si2	čuvao je2	čuvali smo2	čuvali ste2	čuvali su2
	Pluperfect3	bȉo sam čuvao2	bȉo si čuvao2	bȉo je čuvao2	bíli smo čuvali2	bíli ste čuvali2	bíli su čuvali2
	Imperfect	čuvah	čuvaše	čuvaše	čuvasmo	čuvaste	čuvahu
Conditional I		čuvao bih2	čuvao bi2	čuvao bi2	čuvali bismo2	čuvali biste2	čuvali bi2
Conditional II4		bȉo bih čuvao2	bȉo bi čuvao2	bȉo bi čuvao2	bíli bismo čuvali2	bíli biste čuvali2	bíli bi čuvali2
Imperative		—	čuvaj	—	čuvajmo	čuvajte	—
Active past participle		čuvao m / čuvala f / čuvalo n			čuvali m / čuvale f / čuvala n
Passive past participle		čuvan m / čuvana f / čuvano n			čuvani m / čuvane f / čuvana n
1   Croatian spelling: others omit the infinitive suffix completely and bind the clitic. 2   For masculine nouns; a feminine or neuter agent would use the feminine and neuter gender forms of the active past participle and auxiliary verb, respectively. 3   Often replaced by the past perfect in colloquial speech, i.e. the auxiliary verb biti (to be) is routinely dropped. 4   Often replaced by the conditional I in colloquial speech, i.e. the auxiliary verb biti (to be) is routinely dropped.   *Note: The aorist and imperfect were not present in, or have nowadays fallen into disuse in, many dialects and therefore they are routinely replaced by the past perfect in both formal and colloquial speech.

Synonyms

• paziti, starati

Derived terms

• načúvati
• očúvati
• pričúvati
• sačúvati
• učúvati

 

Further reading

• “čuvati”, in Hrvatski jezični portal [Croatian language portal] (in Serbo-Croatian), 2006–2024