Serbo-Croatian cases: are these correct? (Questions About Your Target Languages) Language Learning Forum

Serbo-Croatian cases: are these correct?
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Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages

22 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

benzionisrael
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Message 17 of 22

26 April 2012 at 10:23pm | IP Logged

Thanks for your explanation regarding the usage of veliki.

Does krupni only apply to humans or does it apply to non-human living things as well?
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Merv
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Message 18 of 22

26 April 2012 at 10:49pm | IP Logged

benzionisrael wrote:

Thanks for your explanation regarding the usage of veliki.

Does krupni only apply to humans or does it apply to non-human living things as well?

In the case of animals you could use either.

In the case of a plant, I would go with veliki.

Also, just so you know about animacy (e.g. Vidim njenog macka vs. Vidim njen noz (I see her (male) cat, I see her
knife), it applies to male humans and animals, but not to plants (i.e. Vidim njen bor (I see her pine tree) and of
course not to inanimate things.
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benzionisrael
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Message 19 of 22

26 April 2012 at 10:51pm | IP Logged

Now I am moving on to study the genitive case. It seems simple enough after learning the nominative and accusative forms. Is the following usage of the genitive case correct?

1) Volim slatku mačku mojeg dobrog druga (I like my good friend´s cute cat)
2) Ne volim zalu zmiju moje sveste (I don´t like my sister´s evil snake)
3) Znam lepu reku malog sela (I know the beautiful river of the small village)
4) želim čitati interesantne knjige svojih dobrih prijatelja
(I want to read my good friends´ interesting books)

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Merv
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Message 20 of 22

27 April 2012 at 5:57am | IP Logged

benzionisrael wrote:

Now I am moving on to study the genitive case. It seems simple enough after learning
the nominative and accusative forms. Is the following usage of the genitive case correct?

1) Volim slatku mačku mojeg dobrog druga (I like my good friend´s cute cat)
2) Ne volim zalu zmiju moje sveste (I don´t like my sister´s evil snake)
3) Znam lepu reku malog sela (I know the beautiful river of the small village)
4) želim čitati interesantne knjige svojih dobrih prijatelja
(I want to read my good friends´ interesting books)

While these sentences may be grammatically correct, they don't sound very natural, but here goes:

1.) correct
2.) Ne volim zlu zmiju moje sestre (sestra = sister, sveste means nothing)
3.) Poznajem lepu reku malog sela (znati is more like saber, poznati is more like conocer, which you would
use in this instance). Another example is "Da li poznajes Pariz?" (Do you know Paris?)
4.) correct
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benzionisrael
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Message 21 of 22

27 April 2012 at 12:40pm | IP Logged

Merv wrote:

benzionisrael wrote:

Now I am moving on to study the genitive case. It seems simple enough after learning
the nominative and accusative forms. Is the following usage of the genitive case correct?

1) Volim slatku mačku mojeg dobrog druga (I like my good friend´s cute cat)
2) Ne volim zalu zmiju moje sveste (I don´t like my sister´s evil snake)
3) Znam lepu reku malog sela (I know the beautiful river of the small village)
4) želim čitati interesantne knjige svojih dobrih prijatelja
(I want to read my good friends´ interesting books)

Thank you for the corrections again and for teaching me something else about the grammar.

Would these genitive sentences too be grammatically correct?

1) Auto mojeg brata je vrlo dobar/Auti mojih brata su vrlo dobri
(My bother´s car is very good/My brothers´ cars are very good)
2) Kuća njenog dobrog prijatelja je velika/Kuće njenih dobrih prijatelja su velike
(Her good friend´s house is big/Her good friends´ houses are big)
3) žena Jovana je vrlo lepa (John´s wife is really beautiful)
4) Cipele gospodice su lepe (The young lady´s shoes are nice)
5) Ljudi našog malog sela su dobri, ali ljudi vaših sela su zli
(The people of our small town are good, but the people of your towns are evil)

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Merv
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United States
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414 posts - 749 votes

Speaks: English*, Serbo-Croatian*
Studies: Spanish, French

Message 22 of 22

30 June 2012 at 5:15am | IP Logged

benzionisrael wrote:

Would these genitive sentences too be grammatically correct?

1) Auto mojeg brata je vrlo dobar/Auti mojih brata su vrlo dobri
(My bother´s car is very good/My brothers´ cars are very good)
2) Kuća njenog dobrog prijatelja je velika/Kuće njenih dobrih prijatelja su velike
(Her good friend´s house is big/Her good friends´ houses are big)
3) žena Jovana je vrlo lepa (John´s wife is really beautiful)
4) Cipele gospodice su lepe (The young lady´s shoes are nice)
5) Ljudi našog malog sela su dobri, ali ljudi vaših sela su zli
(The people of our small town are good, but the people of your towns are evil)

1) Auto mojeg brata je vrlo dobar/Auti mojih braće su vrlo dobri
(My bother´s car is very good/My brothers´ cars are very good)
2) Kuća njenog dobrog prijatelja je velika/Kuće njenih dobrih prijatelja su velike
(Her good friend´s house is big/Her good friends´ houses are big)
3) žena Jovana je vrlo lepa (John´s wife is really beautiful) - correct, but it sounds better if you use the
possessive: Jovanova žena je vrlo lepa.
4) Cipele gospodice su lepe (The young lady´s shoes are nice) - correct, but as in (3) it sounds better with the
possessive: Gospođicine cipele su lepe.
5) Ljudi našeg malog sela su dobri, ali ljudi vaših sela su zli
(The people of our small town are good, but the people of your towns are evil)

Everything else seems to be correct.

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