Questions & Answers about Njegovo uho je malo.
Why does the word for "his" have an "-o" at the end (njegovo) instead of just njegov?
In Croatian, possessive words must match the gender of the noun they belong to. The word for ear, uho, is a neuter noun. To match it, the base word njegov gets the neuter ending -o, becoming njegovo.
How can I tell that uho is a neuter noun?
A very reliable rule for beginners is to look at the last letter of the noun. If a noun ends in -o or -e, it is almost always neuter.
Does malo end in "-o" for the exact same reason?
Yes! Adjectives also have to match the gender of the noun they describe. The base adjective for "small" is mali, but because uho is neuter, it changes to malo.
Why is the verb je the third word in the sentence? I thought it had to be in the second position.
The rule is that small, unstressed verbs like je go in the second position of the sentence. However, this means after the first whole phrase, not just the first single word. Here, Njegovo uho (His ear) acts as one complete unit, taking up the first position together.