Breakdown of Nismo ju sreli u gradu.
grad
city
nisam
am not (nisi, nije, nismo, niste, nisu)
ju
her (accusative clitic)
u
in, into
sresti
to meet (encounter)
Questions & Answers about Nismo ju sreli u gradu.
Why does the sentence use ju instead of je for 'her'?
Both je and ju are short (clitic) pronouns meaning 'her'. The lesson teaches that ju is required next to the verb je (is) to avoid saying je je. However, many native speakers use ju and je interchangeably in everyday speech. Saying Nismo je sreli would also be perfectly correct here!
Could I put ju at the end of the sentence, like in English?
No. ju is a clitic (a short, unstressed pronoun). Croatian grammar rules say clitics must almost always go in the second position of the sentence. Since Nismo takes the first spot, ju has to lock in right behind it.
Why does sreli end in -i?
This is the past tense form of the verb for 'met'. Because the hidden subject is 'we' (shown by Nismo), we need the plural ending. The -i ending tells us that 'we' is either a group of men or a mixed group. If 'we' meant a group of only women, it would be srele.
Why is it u gradu instead of u grad?
The word grad (city) changes to gradu because of the preposition u (in). When you talk about a static location, Croatian uses the locative case, which adds an -u to the end of most masculine nouns.
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