Breakdown of Nisam ponio mobitel jer nema baterije.
mobitel
cellphone
nisam
am not (nisi, nije, nismo, niste, nisu)
jer
because
nemati
to not have
baterija
battery
ponijeti
to bring along
Questions & Answers about Nisam ponio mobitel jer nema baterije.
How is the negative past tense formed in Nisam ponio?
To say "I didn't bring", Croatian uses nisam (the negative "I am") followed by the past action word (the l-participle) ponio (brought). The word for "I" (ja) is left out because nisam already tells us exactly who is speaking.
Does ponio change if a woman is speaking?
Doesn't nema mean "he/she doesn't have"? Why is it translated as "there is no" here?
You are right that nema is the "he/she/it" form of the verb "to not have". However, in Croatian, it is also used as a fixed, impersonal expression meaning "there is not" or "there is no". It acts as the exact opposite of ima (there is).
Why is it baterije with an -e instead of baterija?
The base word for battery is baterija. Whenever you use nema to mean "there is no [something]", the thing that is missing must be in the genitive case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, that means changing the ending to -e, which gives us baterije.
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