Breakdown of Čitali smo puno knjiga poznatih autora.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
knjiga
book
čitati
to read
puno
a lot
poznat
famous / familiar (to someone)
autor
author
Questions & Answers about Čitali smo puno knjiga poznatih autora.
Why is knjiga in the genitive case here?
The word puno (a lot) expresses a quantity. In Croatian, when you state a quantity, the noun that follows must be in the genitive case. Since we are talking about multiple books, it is in the genitive plural.
Wait, isn't knjiga the dictionary form for a single book?
It looks exactly the same, but this is actually the genitive plural! For most feminine nouns ending in -a (like knjiga), the genitive plural also ends in -a. In spoken Croatian, the final vowel is held slightly longer to tell them apart, but in writing, you rely on context like the word puno to know it means multiple books.
Why does poznatih end in -ih?
It is an adjective describing autora (authors). Because autora is in the genitive plural, the adjective must match it. The rule is very handy here: for all three genders, adjectives in the genitive plural take the ending -ih.
Why does autora end in -a if it means authors in the plural?
The word autor is a masculine noun. Just like with the feminine noun knjiga, the genitive plural ending for most masculine nouns is also -a. The combination of the -ih adjective ending and the -a noun ending is the standard pattern for the genitive plural.
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