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Questions & Answers about Molim vas, jedan čaj.
I learned that molim means 'please'. Why do we add vas here?
The word molim literally means 'I ask'. By adding vas (the formal word for 'you'), you are literally saying 'I ask you'. Molim vas is the standard, polite way to request something from someone you don't know well, like a waiter or a shopkeeper.
How do I know if čaj is masculine, feminine, or neuter?
In Croatian, you can usually tell a noun's gender by its last letter. Čaj ends in a consonant (the letter j), which tells us it is a masculine noun.
Why do we use jedan instead of jedna or jedno?
Since I am asking for the tea, shouldn't jedan čaj be in the accusative (object) case?
It actually is in the accusative case! For masculine things that are not alive (like a cup of tea), the accusative case looks exactly the same as the dictionary form. Masculine words only change their spelling in the accusative case if they are living things (like a man or an animal).