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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 22 Here I am: More Pronouns 129 / 600

use personal names, any nouns and pronouns, but they always have to be in G:

Nema Ane G . lit. ‘There’s no Ana.’

Nema moje knjige G . lit. ‘There’s no my book.’ = My book isn’t here.

Nema ga G . lit. ‘There’s no him.’ = He’s not here. (or it, depending on the 3m/n

context)

Nema ih G . lit. ‘There’s no them.’ = They’re not here.

3pl

This is the negative existential construction. These sentences don’t say really here,

but there’s no way to translate them accurately to English (if you know, please tell

me). It always uses nema in the present tense (check the last sentence).

This construction is used in several frequent phrases. One of them is:

never mind

nema veze

it doesn’t matter

The word veza normally means connection, so this is clearly a non-trivial meaning.

(This phrase can be also used within larger constructions that will be explained

later.)

How to distinguish two possible meanings of nema ga – there’s no him/it and he/she

doesn’t have him/it? The first meaning is impossible if there’s a subject. So, people

use on ga nema (or ona ga nema) to avoid confusion.

You cannot use the pronoun forms above with prepositions. If you want to use

prepositions with pronouns, you have to use the stressed forms, explained in 34 For

Them: Stressed Pronouns.

________

® “Ekavian” forms, which dominate in Serbia, apply to the verb razumjeti (razumije)

understand: its “Ekavian” form is razumeti, and the verb is fully regular.

Instead of shvaćati, a slightly different form of the verb, shvatati, is used in Serbia

and most of Bosnia.

• Examples

The song U svakom slučaju te volim In any case, I love you, performed by Ibrica

Jusić (a masculine name, despite ending in -a) is, without any doubt, among the very

best love songs from Croatia in the last 100 years:

Volim te A uvijek

I always love you

2

I kad se budiš

I kad na licu DL šminke G nemaš

Even when you’re waking up

Even when you don’t wear any makeup

I kad si ljuta N

Even when you’re angry

I kad se čudiš

Even when you’re wondering

(Luko Paljetak)

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