The Passive Agent
When using the passive voice, the main focus is on the object receiving the action rather than the person or thing performing it. However, if you still want to mention the "doer" (the agent) of the action, Croatian gives you two ways to say "by": od and od strane (literally "by the side of").
Both of these expressions must be followed by the Genitive case.
Using "Od strane"
In formal contexts, such as corporate reports, legal documents, or news about cybersecurity breaches, od strane is the most common way to introduce the agent. Notice how the noun that follows it takes the Genitive case endings (for example, haker becomes hakera).
| The password was stolen by an anonymous hacker. | Lozinka je ukradena od strane anonimnog hakera. |
| Our software was compromised by malicious hackers. | Naš softver je narušen od strane zlonamjernih hakera. |
Using "Od"
You can also use the shorter preposition od to express the exact same meaning. It functions just like od strane and also requires the Genitive case.
| All data was stolen by an anonymous hacker until we woke up. | Svi podaci ukradeni su od anonimnog hakera dok se nismo probudili. |
Describing the Agent
When you add adjectives to describe the agent, remember that they must also match the noun in the Genitive case. For masculine nouns like haker, the descriptive adjectives will typically end in -og in the singular (like anonimnog or zlonamjernog) and -ih in the plural.
| The system was compromised by a malicious hacker. | Sustav je narušen od strane zlonamjernog hakera. |
