Breakdown of Gosti su ovdje i želim ih pozdraviti.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovdje
here
i
and (additive)
željeti
to want
ih
them
gost
guest
pozdraviti
to greet
Questions & Answers about Gosti su ovdje i želim ih pozdraviti.
What does the word ih refer to in this sentence?
ih is the accusative clitic pronoun for "them". It refers back to gosti (the guests). Because you want to greet the guests, they receive the action of the verb, which means we must use the accusative form.
Why is ih placed right after želim and before pozdraviti?
In Croatian, clitics (short, unstressed words like ih) strictly prefer the second position in a clause. The word i (and) connects two separate parts. In the second part, želim (I want) is the first word, so the clitic ih naturally drops into the second position right after it, separating the two verbs.
Is su acting like a clitic in the first part of the sentence too?
Exactly! su is a clitic form of the verb "to be" (they are). Just like ih does later on, su demands the second position in its own clause, coming right after the first word, Gosti.
How do we know Gosti is plural?
Gosti is the plural form of the masculine noun gost (guest). In Croatian, most masculine nouns form their plural by adding an -i to the end when they are the subject of the sentence.
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