Questions & Answers about Njegov ključ je nov.
Why does the word for his (Njegov) not end in an a or o here?
Possessive words like njegov (his) change their endings to match the noun they belong to, not the person who owns it. Since ključ (key) is a masculine noun, njegov stays in its basic masculine form. If he owned a book (a feminine noun), it would be njegova knjiga.
Why is the word for new here nov instead of novi?
In Croatian, masculine adjectives often have two forms: a short one like nov and a long one like novi. When you are describing what a noun is using the verb je (is), you must use the short form. You typically use the long form when the adjective comes directly before the noun, like in the phrase novi ključ (the new key).
Could I put the word je at the end of the sentence, like Njegov ključ nov je?
No, the word je is an enclitic, which is a small, unstressed word. In Croatian, these types of words almost always insist on taking the second position in a sentence. Here, the entire phrase Njegov ključ counts as the first grammatical block, so je tucks in right after it.
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