EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 05 Accusave Case 31 / 600
Čekam Antu. I’m waiting for Ante.
Ne poznajem Krunu. I don’t know Kruno. ®
Now you know how to make accusative case of almost all nouns! We can
summarize the rules we have learned in a table:
noun type (N)
A (object)
nouns in -a -a → -u
nouns in -o or -e no change
nouns in a consonant
(not people or animals)
no change
nouns in a consonant
(people or animals)
add -a
poznavati
(These rules are not completely precise, but will work for almost all nouns; I will give
you the exact rules a bit later.)
Finally, let me explain how you can ask about objects. Start questions with the
following question words:
kog(a) who (as an object)
što what
For example, you can ask what Ana is watching, or who Goran is waiting for. There’s
a very important point: the answers must be again in the accusative case, as they are
still considered objects:
Što Ana gleda? What is Ana watching?
— Film. A movie. (A!)
— Konja. A horse. (A!)
Što Ivan pije? What is Ivan drinking?
piti
— Kavu. Coffee. (A!)
Koga Goran čeka? Who is Goran waiting for?
— Anu. Ana. (A!)
Again, you’ll often hear and read the colloquial word šta ® instead of što. I’ll explain
details of who and what questions later, in 28 Asking Who and What.
You can, of course, answer with just:
— Ne znam. I don’t know.
The verb znati know is one of a very few verbs which shift their stress to ne¨ even in
the ‘western’ scheme, since its pres-3 has only one syllable (zna). I’ve indicated it
with an underline under ne¨. (People feel it’s pronounced differently than other ne¨
+ verb combinations, so you’ll see sometimes non-standard spellings as one word
i.e. neznam.)