EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 57 Whose, What Thing and What Like 332 / 600
Pay attention how both kakvu and ljubavnu are forms that again exactly match the
gender and case of the noun you are asking about – here, feminine singular, the
accusative case – as obvious from their endings!
Of course, it’s also possible to ask:
Kakva knjiga N je to N ? What kind of book is that?
Kakva N je to N knjiga N ? (an alternative word order)
— Ljubavna N . lit. ‘Love.’
Colloquially, it’s possible to ask about personal opinions by adding the person in DL
(recall 23 I’m Cold: Basic Impressions):
Kakva N ti DL je knjiga N ? (colloq.) lit. ‘What is the book like to you?’
2
— Dosadna N . Boring.
This question would be best translated how you like the book. As you can see,
superficially similar words (ta, to, ti²) produce completely different meanings.
Finally, it’s possible to ask what book. Pay attention, not simply what (answers could
be a book, a magazine, newspapers etc.), but what book.
For questions of type what book, what car, Croatian uses a specific questionadjective:
koji (a bit specific forms) what... / which
Its forms basically follow the same pattern as moj my – there are longer and shorter
forms. You can in principle use both forms, but longer, regular ones – kojeg, kojem
– are much more common, and standard in Croatia:®
gender N A DL G I
fem. koja koju kojoj koje kojom
neut. koje = N
masc.
(not p/a)
masc.
(p/a)
koji
= N
= G
kojem(u)
kom(e) ®
kojeg(a)
kog(a) ®
kojim
(Forms for the fem. gender are, as usual, plain adjective forms, they are listed here
just for completeness sake.)
Some forms also have optional vowels at their end. There’s absolutely no difference
between kojeg and kojega, and both forms are used (unlike common adjectives,
where such vowels are used only occasionally in writing). For instance:
Koju knjigu A čitaš? What book are you reading?
(you would answer with the title of the book)