Questions & Answers about Ovdje nema sapuna.
Why does the sentence use nema to mean "there is no"?
In Croatian, to say "there is no" or "there isn't any" of something, you use nema. This is the "he/she/it" form of the verb nemati (to not have). Instead of saying "there is no soap," Croatian literally says "it doesn't have soap."
Why is the word for soap sapuna instead of its dictionary form, sapun?
Sapuna is in the genitive case. In Croatian, whenever you use nema to say that something is missing, lacking, or doesn't exist, the thing that is missing must always be in the genitive case. Because sapun is a masculine noun ending in a consonant, it adds an -a to the end.
How would I say the opposite: "There is soap here"?
You would use ima (it has) instead of nema. The sentence would be Ovdje ima sapuna. Just like with nema, we often keep the genitive case after ima when talking about an unspecified or uncountable quantity of something (meaning "some soap").
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