Cjelina 3: Moja obitelj
⚙️ 3 | 1 | Lekcija 3: Braća i sestre – Gramatika
More About the Accusative Case – Animacy
In Unit 2 when you first met the Accusative case in its use with direct objects, you saw contexts where the direct objects were primarily things, i.e., inanimate objects.
- Mi gledamo film. / Ja čitam zanimljivi roman.
Now we will expand the use of the Accusative case to include other types of singular masculine nouns that refer to people and living beings. In some circumstances Croatian will treat nouns differently, depending on whether the noun is animate (including a wide range of words that refer to people and animals) or inanimate (non-living objects, abstract concepts, and plants, etc.). In this Module you saw sentences like:
- Ja imam brata. / Ja imam bratića.
Based on these examples, it is possible to conclude that masculine nouns in the Accusative can have two different types of endings:
- zero ending (no change) > same as Nominative for inanimate nouns (stol, most)
- ending –a > for animate nouns (brat, stric, ujak)
Here is the full list of endings for the Accusative case, both singular and plural forms. Most of these endings you already learned in the previous unit. What’s new are the endings for masculine, singular, animate nouns.
Masculine
- Nominative inanimate: Ovo je moj laptop. / Ovo su moji laptopi.
- Accusative inanimate: Imam laptop. / Imam laptope.
- Nominative animate: Ovo je moj prijatelj. / Ovo su moji prijatelji.
- Accusative inanimate: Imam prijatelja. / Imam prijatelje.
Feminine
- Nominative regardless of animacy: Ovo je moja prijateljica. / Ovo su moje prijateljice.
- Accusative regardless of animacy: Imam prijateljicu. / Imam prijateljice.
Neuter
- Nominative regardless of animacy: Ovo je moje ogledalo. / Ovo su moja ogledala.
- Accusative regardless of animacy: Imam ogledalo. / Imam ogledala.
Ending chart — singular
| Gender | Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| masculine inanimate | – / | – / |
| masculine animate | – / | – a |
| feminine | – a | – u |
| neuter | – o / – e | – / |
Ending chart — plural
| Gender | Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | – i | – e |
| feminine | – e | – e |
| neuter | – a | – a |
❗ Be careful – the nouns tata and braća refer to a male individuals, but grammatically they decline like feminine nouns. Thus, they change their forms based on feminine endings. In other words, you cannot say *Ja imam tata. You need to say: (1) Ja imam tatu. (2) Ja imam braću.
❓ Who/What is Animate?
Animate nouns include words for:
- people
- their names (Denis, Ivan, Marko, Ana, Anastazija, Dalibora…),
- their professions and occupations (doktor, glazbenik, glumac, pjevačica…),
- their family relations (mama, tata, brat, sestra, ujak, stric, teta…),
- social roles (prijatelj, prijateljica, studentica…),
- nationalities (Amerikanac, Bosanac, Hrvat…),
- animals (pas, mačka…) and insects
❗ Animacy is a subcategory of grammatically masculine nouns. There is no distinction of animacy for feminine nouns.
🧑🍼 Noun Otac
Below is more about the noun otac — this time in two different cases: Nominative and Accusative. Look at the chart below, and pay attention to the changes that the noun goes through. Otac is a masculine noun that undergoes certain sound and form changes in different cases. Here are some examples:
| case | sentence | change |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative sing. | Ovo je moj otac. | |
| Accusative sing. | Imam oca. | Fleeting -a-: otc- + ending -a > otca : [t] + c = c > oca |
| Nominative pl. | Ovo su naši očevi. | fleeting -a-: what remains in otc- and it becomes a monosyllabic word: otc- + -ev + -i > otcevi: [t] + c + e = če > očevi |
| Accusative pl. | Oni imaju očeve. | based on nominative plural: očevi; it only changes the case ending > očeve |
🧑🏫 Practice – Do you get it?
What did we learn?
3.1.3 Zadatak 1: Obitelj
3.1.3 Zadatak 2. Obitelj
Complete the sentences below paying careful attention to context and to what you have learned about the accusative case thus far.
3.1.3 Zadatak 3. Koga imaš?
You will read 6 incomplete sentences. Choose the best noun form from the drop-down menu and complete each sentence based on both content and grammar.
3.1.3 Zadatak 4. Kutak za gramatiku
Choose the correct statement.
❓ Who and What
So far you learned that a question što (what) has the same form in the Nominative and Accusative forms, as in the following examples:
| Question | Answer | Case we need to use |
|---|---|---|
| Što je ovo? | Ovo je knjiga. | Nominative |
| Što imaš? | Imam knjigu. | Accusative |
As these two examples show, when we refer to an inanimate object, whether in the Nominative or Accusative case, the form for what will always be što. However, when we talk about masculine animate nouns, we need to distinguish the forms of who for both cases:
Tko je ovo? — Ovo je moj brat.
Who is this? — This is my brother.
- Tko is in Nominative because it is the subject of the sentence.
Koga imaš? — Imam brata.
Who do you have? — I have a brother.
- Koga is a masculine animate pronoun and is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of ‘imati’.
🧔 Masculine names
In this lesson you encountered some male names that do not end in a consonant. Here are the examples.
If you listen to the text again, you will hear the following sentences:
Mario said:
- Da, moja teta ima muža Ivicu.
- Da, imam djeda Franju i baku Danicu.
- Da, ona ima muža Antu.
All three masculine names have a different ending in the nominative case: Ivica, Franjo, and Ante (instead of the most common consonant ending). What this means, as the examples show, is that when we want to express those names in the Accusative case, we need to use the feminine Accusative ending. However, you need to remember that this will NOT always be the case. Names that have a male and female form, such as Dino/Dina or Bruno/Bruna, will follow the regular masculine ending.
- Imam brata Dina i imam sestru Dinu.
- Imam brata Bruna i sestru Brunu.
🔤 First and last name in the Accusative
If we want to express the full name (first and last name) in the Accusative case, you need to remember the following:
Masculine form
When we talk about men, we need to change both the first and last names
- Koga ima Hrvatska?
- Hrvatska ima Gorana Ivaniševića.
| Rule | Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| Masculine name in a consonant | Goran Ivanišević | Hrvatska ima Gorana Ivaniševića |
| Masculine name ending in a -e | Šime Vrsaljko | Hrvatska ima Šimu Vrsaljka. |
| Masculine name ending in -o | Ivo Karlović | Hrvatska ima Ivu Karlovića. |
| Masculine name ending in -a | Luka Modrić | Hrvatska ima Luku Modrića. |
Feminine form
When we talk about women, we need to change ONLY the first name, never the last name. However, if the female full name contains a nickname, then the nickname has to be changed as well.
- Koga ima Hrvatska?
- Hrvatska ima Blanku Vlašić.
| Rule | Nominative | Accusative |
|---|---|---|
| Feminine name ending in -a | Blanka Vlašić | Hrvatska ima Blanku Vlašić. |
| Feminine name with a nickname | Marija Jurić Zagorka | Hrvatska ima Mariju Jurić Zagorku. |
🧑🏫 Practice
What did we learn?
3.1.3 Zadatak 5. Tko? Što? Koga?
Look at the following sentences. If you needed to get these answers, how would you start the question – with tko or with koga?
3.1.3 Zadatak 6. Koga ima Hrvatska?
Look at the pictures and answer the question.
Media Attributions
- Mario: Family members © Tako Lako is licensed under a CC BY-SA (Attribution ShareAlike) license
