Breakdown of Tražio sam signal na otoku.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
otok
island
signal
signal
Questions & Answers about Tražio sam signal na otoku.
How do we know from Tražio sam that the speaker is male?
Since signal is the thing being looked for, shouldn't its ending change?
It is actually in the accusative case, which we use for the direct object of an action. However, for masculine nouns that represent non-living things (like signal), the accusative form looks exactly the same as the dictionary form.
Why do we use na instead of u for the island?
For islands, Croatian uses the preposition na (on), much like in English. The noun otok (island) changes to otoku because it is in the locative case, which tells us where a static action is taking place.
Could I start the sentence with sam?
No, sam is a special type of word called an enclitic. Enclitics are "weak" words that can never start a sentence and typically must sit in the second position. That is why it comes immediately after Tražio.
If I wanted to say "There is no signal on the island," how would I use nema here?
You would say Nema signala na otoku. The word nema (there is no) requires the noun that is missing to be in the genitive case. This is why the word signal would change to signala to show negative existence.
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