ocijeniti

Ocijeniti is a verb used in Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin to mean to evaluate, assess, or rate something or someone. It is a perfective verb, typically referring to a completed act of judgment or appraisal, and it contrasts with the imperfective form ocjenjivati, which denotes the process or repetition of evaluation. The related noun ocjena denotes a grade, rating, or assessment.

In standard usage, ocijeniti takes a direct object describing what is being evaluated and is often followed by a noun phrase such as a performance, proposal, or work. Present tense forms include ja ocijenim, ti ocijeniš, on ocijeni, mi ocijenimo, vi ocijenite, oni ocijene. The imperfective counterpart ocjenjivati has forms like ja ocjenjujem, ti ocjenjuješ, mi ocjenjujemo, vi ocjenjujete, oni ocjenjuju. The imperative forms are ocijeni (you evaluate) and ocijenite (you all evaluate). Past forms align with gender and number: ocijenio/ocijenila/ocijenili.

Typical uses encompass formal evaluation contexts—academic grading, performance reviews, quality assessments, and decision-making processes. Examples: Ocijenio sam rad studenta visokom ocjenom; Ocijenite sve prijedloge prije donošenja odluke. In many contexts ocijeniti can be substituted by procijeniti when the sense is “estimate” or “assess value or cost,” though ocijeniti emphasizes qualitative judgment of quality or performance.

Etymology traces to cijeniti (to value) with a prefix forming the perfective ocijeniti. Related terms include ocjena (grade), ocjenjivanje (evaluation), and ocjenitelj (evaluator). The word is widely used across Croatian, Bosnian, Serbian and Montenegrin.