Breakdown of Želim objasniti situaciju šefu.
željeti
to want
šef
boss
objasniti
to explain
situacija
situation
Questions & Answers about Želim objasniti situaciju šefu.
Why is it šefu instead of šef?
Šefu is in the dative case. When an action is directed to or for someone (the indirect object), Croatian uses the dative case. For masculine nouns like šef, we add the ending -u to show that he is the one receiving the explanation.
Why does situacija end in -u here (situaciju)?
It is the direct object of the verb, meaning it is the thing being explained. This puts it in the accusative case. Feminine nouns that end in -a change their ending to -u in the accusative singular. Notice how both situaciju and šefu end in -u here, but for completely different grammar reasons!
Why do we use the infinitive objasniti?
Just like in English (I want to explain), the second verb that follows želim (I want) stays in its basic infinitive form.
Where is the word for I in this sentence?
The verb želim already means I want. In Croatian, the verb ending tells you who is doing the action, so the pronoun ja (I) is usually dropped unless you really need to emphasize it.