Questions & Answers about Njezina noga je duga.
Why does the word for her (njezina) end in an a?
In Croatian, possessive words act like adjectives. They must match the gender of the thing being owned. Since noga (leg) is a feminine word, the base word njezin (her) adds an a to become njezina.
Does the base of the word change if the owner is male?
Yes! The base of the word tells us who the owner is. If we wanted to say his leg, we would use the base njegov (his). To make it match the feminine word noga, it would become njegova noga.
Why does the adjective duga (long) also end in an a?
Just like the possessive word, descriptive adjectives must match the noun they describe. Because noga is feminine, the adjective takes the feminine ending a, making it duga instead of the masculine form dug.
Does noga mean leg or foot?
It can actually mean both! In everyday Croatian, noga is used for the entire leg, including the foot. If you specifically need to talk about just the foot, you would use the word stopalo, but noga is much more common.
I sometimes see njena instead of njezina. Are they the same?