Questions & Answers about Dali smo bratu poklon.
Why does the word for brother change to bratu in this sentence?
It is in the dative case! The dative case is used to show who receives something. Since we are giving the gift TO the brother, the masculine noun brat takes the dative ending -u to become bratu.
Where is the word for "we" in Dali smo?
Croatian usually drops subject pronouns like mi (we) because the verbs already tell you who is doing the action. The helping verb smo paired with the past tense verb dali specifically means "we gave".
Since the gift is the object being given, why doesn't poklon change its ending?
The word poklon is indeed in the accusative case here because it is the direct object receiving the action. However, for non-living masculine nouns, the accusative form is exactly the same as the basic dictionary form.
Could we change the word order to Smo dali bratu poklon?
No, you cannot start a sentence with smo. It is a special type of "weak" word called an enclitic, which almost always needs to be in the second position in a sentence. Here, it correctly jumps into the second spot right after Dali.
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