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Questions & Answers about Govorim dva jezika.
Why is there no word for "I" in this sentence?
In Croatian, you usually drop the subject pronouns like ja (I) because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The -m at the end of govorim clearly means "I speak".
Why is the word for languages jezika? Isn't the plural of jezik normally jezici?
This is the special rule for the numbers 2, 3, and 4! After these numbers, you don't use the normal plural. Instead, you must use the genitive singular form of the noun. For the masculine noun jezik, the genitive singular is jezika.
Wait, so this sentence literally translates to "I speak two of language"?
Exactly! You can think of the genitive case as meaning "of". After the numbers 2, 3, and 4, Croatian grammar effectively says "two of a language", "three of a language", and so on.
Will I always use dva for the number two?
No, it depends on the gender of the noun you are counting. You use dva for masculine and neuter nouns, just like the masculine noun jezik. But if you are counting feminine nouns, you must use dvije.