Breakdown of Njegova supruga čita pismo na balkonu.
pismo
letter
čitati
to read
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
njegov
his
supruga
wife
balkon
balcony
Questions & Answers about Njegova supruga čita pismo na balkonu.
Why does the word for "his" (njegova) have a feminine ending if it refers to a man?
In Croatian, possessive words must agree with the gender of the thing being owned, not the owner. Even though the owner is a man ("his"), the noun being owned is supruga (wife), which is feminine. So, the base word njegov takes the feminine ending -a to become njegova.
Why doesn't the word for "letter" (pismo) change its ending since it is the object being read?
Because pismo is a neuter noun. It is indeed in the accusative case here because it is the direct object of the verb čita. However, for all neuter nouns in Croatian, the accusative form is identical to the nominative (dictionary) form, so the ending doesn't change.
Why does balkon change to balkonu at the end of the sentence?
It changes because of the preposition na (on). When describing a static location (where something is currently happening), the preposition na requires the locative case. For a masculine noun like balkon, the locative ending is -u.
How do we know čita means "is reading" and not just "reads"?
Context! Croatian does not have a separate continuous ("-ing") tense like English does. The single present tense verb čita translates to both "reads" and "is reading". In this specific sentence, "is reading" sounds like the most natural translation.
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