The Relative Pronoun
When you want to describe a noun by adding a new clause—like saying "the writer who is writing" or "the package that arrived"—you use a relative pronoun to connect the ideas.
In Croatian, the base word for this is koji. Like an adjective, it changes its ending to match the gender of the noun it refers back to:
| Gender | Nominative Pronoun |
|---|---|
| Masculine | koji |
| Feminine | koja |
| Neuter | koje |
In this lesson, we will focus on using these pronouns in the nominative case, which means the pronoun acts as the subject of the new clause you are attaching.
Masculine Nouns: Koji
For masculine people, animals, or objects, use koji. The relative pronoun almost always comes directly after the noun it describes.
| That is the writer who is writing a new book. | To je pisac koji piše novu knjigu. |
| The young man who is singing is a famous singer. | Mladić koji pjeva poznati je pjevač. |
It works exactly the same way for inanimate objects like a package (paket) or an object (predmet):
| Where is the package that arrived yesterday? | Gdje je paket koji je jučer stigao? |
| The object that is in the box is really old. | Predmet koji je u kutiji stvarno je star. |
Feminine Nouns: Koja
When referring back to a feminine noun, the pronoun changes to koja.
| The little girl who is standing in the room is reading a letter. | Djevojčica koja stoji u sobi čita pismo. |
| The cat that is lying under the table is black. | Mačka koja leži ispod stola je crna. |
Describing Who and What
You can use these relative clauses to define who someone is or to specify exactly which item you are talking about. Notice how the sentence flows smoothly by linking the two ideas together.
| The young man running in the park is a fast athlete. | Mladić koji trči u parku brz je sportaš. |
| The little girl standing there is my sister. | Djevojčica koja tamo stoji moja je sestra. |
