Breakdown of Ne, nismo na koncertu, u kinu smo.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
kino
cinema
ne
no, not
u
in, into
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
koncert
concert (m)
Questions & Answers about Ne, nismo na koncertu, u kinu smo.
Since this lesson is about u and na for destination, why don't we use the accusative case here?
This sentence tells us where someone currently is (location), not where they are going (destination). When u and na show a fixed location, they take the locative case instead. For masculine words like koncert and neuter words like kino, the locative ending is -u, giving us na koncertu and u kinu.
Why do we use na for the concert but u for the cinema?
In Croatian, u is generally used for enclosed spaces or physical buildings, like a cinema (kino). The preposition na is used for open spaces, surfaces, and events. Since a concert is an event, you must use na.
I see smo and nismo, but where is the word for 'we'?
Croatian verbs change their form to match the subject, so the subject pronoun is usually dropped unless you want to add special emphasis. The verbs nismo (we are not) and smo (we are) already have 'we' built right into them.
Why does smo come at the very end of the sentence instead of before u kinu?
The word smo is a clitic, which is a short, unstressed word that usually needs to be in the second position of its clause. Here, the prepositional phrase u kinu acts as a single block of information in the first position, so smo comfortably sits right after it.
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