If there were only one truth, you couldn’t paint a hundred canvases on the same theme. Pablo Picasso
There are some English words which can be translated in different ways into Croatian, e.g. the word holiday(s). In this lesson, the situation is quite the opposite. The focus is on a single Croatian word – tema, and several different ways in which it can be translated into English, depending on the context. We shall first deal with a common mistake of the use of the word THEME. It is similar to tema in form and that is why it is often the first word that comes to mind as the appropriate translation for tema. But the truth is that its meaning and, consequently its usage in English is rather limited. Theme can be used instead of subject when we talk about the main idea in a book, film or speech, e.g. ‘The central theme of many of her books is the life of women in the wake of the sexual revolution’; or ‘Socially responsible entrepreneurship is a recurrent theme (i.e. a theme that appears repeatedly) in his public speeches’. Theme is also used in expressions like filmska tema, meaning a song or a tune which is played in a film several times. For example, Celine Dion’s My Heart Will Go On is remembered as the theme song / the theme from the film Titanic.
TOPIC is a subject that people talk or write about, like presidential elections in the US or Croatian mafia topical issues. It usually refers to something which is important at the time, hence the adjective topical: ‘Our TV programme deals with topical issues (important subjects, which are of interest at the time)’. Topic is used in the following common expressions:
The local elections in Zagreb have been the only topic of conversation for days.
The recession is one of the main topics for discussion among different people.
The book you recommended does cover a wide range of topics.
SUBJECT is more general in its meaning than topic, even though sometimes both words can be used interchangeably, as in the sentence ‘Our subject of / topic for discussion is ageism in the workplace’. It is useful to remember the following common phrases with subject:
I didn’t like his constant questions, so I was trying to change the subject.
Can we drop the subject of my divorce, please?
While we’re on the subject of money, when are you planning to get a job?
We should finally broach the subject of inefficient sales.
Salaries are a touchy subject with our boss.
The word subject can sometimes be used interchangeably with the word theme, e.g. ‘Barack Obama’s search for his roots is the subject / theme of his first book.’
