Breakdown of Imam novu bilježnicu i želim ti ju pokazati.
nov
new
i
and (additive)
željeti
to want
imati
to have
ju
her (accusative clitic)
pokazati
to show
ti
to you (sg.)
bilježnica
notebook
Questions & Answers about Imam novu bilježnicu i želim ti ju pokazati.
Why is it ti ju and not ju ti?
In Croatian, short "little words" called clitics must follow a strict order when they appear together in a group (often called a Wackernagel cluster). If you have both a dative pronoun (ti meaning "to you") and an accusative pronoun (ju meaning "it"), the dative pronoun always comes before the accusative pronoun.
Why do we use ju for "it" instead of a neutral word?
In Croatian, all nouns have a grammatical gender, even objects. "Notebook" (bilježnica) is a feminine noun. When you refer back to a feminine noun as a direct object, you must use a feminine accusative pronoun. ju literally means "her", but translates to "it" in English because notebooks are objects.
Why are the pronouns ti ju placed between želim and pokazati?
The main verb phrase here is želim pokazati (I want to show). However, short pronouns like ti and ju are enclitics, meaning they naturally rush to the second position of their clause. After the conjunction i (and), želim counts as the first word of the new clause, so the clitics ti ju tuck right behind it, splitting the two verbs.
Why does the sentence say novu bilježnicu instead of nova bilježnica?
Nova bilježnica is the dictionary form. Because the notebook is the direct object receiving the action of the verb imam (I have), it must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, both the adjective and the noun change their ending to -u.
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