Breakdown of Idem na zabavu, ali ga tamo ne vidim.
tamo
there
ne
no, not
ali
but (strong contrast)
vidjeti
to see
Questions & Answers about Idem na zabavu, ali ga tamo ne vidim.
What does ga mean here, and why is it used?
The word ga means him. It is the short, unstressed form of the pronoun on (he) in the accusative case. We use the accusative case here because the person is the direct object of the sentence—the one being seen (or not seen!).
Why is ga placed right after ali?
The word ga is a clitic. Clitics are weak words that must always take the second position in their clause. The second part of this sentence is ali ga tamo ne vidim. The conjunction ali (but) acts as the first word of this new clause, so ga jumps right into the second spot!
Why does the word for party change to zabavu?
The dictionary form is zabava (a feminine noun ending in -a). When you express movement to a destination using the preposition na, the noun following it needs to be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns, the -a ending changes to -u, making it na zabavu.
Why are ne and vidim written as two separate words?
In Croatian, the negative word ne is almost always written separately from the verb, like ne vidim (I do not see) or ne znam (I do not know). You only attach it to form a single word with a few specific verbs, such as nisam (I am not) or neću (I will not).