Questions & Answers about Njezina majka je učiteljica.
Why is it njezina instead of njezin?
Possessive words in Croatian have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because majka (mother) is a feminine noun, the pronoun must be in the feminine form njezina instead of the masculine form njezin.
The word je (is) is the third word in the sentence. Doesn't it have to be in the second position?
It actually is in the second position! In Croatian, the "second position" rule for small words like je applies to the second phrase rather than strictly the second word. Njezina majka (her mother) counts as one complete block of information, so je comes right after it.
How do we know učiteljica refers to a female teacher?
In Croatian, professions usually have distinct forms for men and women. The masculine word for teacher is učitelj. Adding the common feminine ending -ica gives us učiteljica. Since we are talking about a mother, we must use this feminine form.
Why is there no word for "a" before učiteljica?
Croatian does not use articles like "a", "an", or "the". You simply say "Her mother is teacher," and the "a" is naturally understood when translating to English.
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