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Questions & Answers about Pas čeka dječaka.
Why does the word for boy end in "a" (dječaka) instead of just dječak?
Dječak is a masculine noun. In this sentence, the boy is the direct object (the one being waited for), which means we need to use the accusative case. Because a boy is a living being (animate), the masculine accusative ending adds an -a, making it dječaka.
The English translation says "waiting for", but there is no word for "for" in the Croatian sentence. Why?
In English, we wait for someone. But in Croatian, the verb čekati (to wait) takes a direct object right away, without any extra preposition. You just use the verb followed immediately by the person or thing you are waiting for in the accusative case.
Since word order is flexible in Croatian, how do we know the dog is the one waiting, and not the boy?
We can tell who is doing the action by looking at the word endings. Pas is in the nominative case (the base dictionary form), which marks the subject doing the waiting. Dječaka is in the accusative case (marked by the -a ending), which makes it the object being waited for. If the boy were waiting for the dog, the endings would swap to show it: Dječak čeka psa.