Breakdown of Tražim svoju putovnicu.
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
svoj
one's own
putovnica
passport (f)
Questions & Answers about Tražim svoju putovnicu.
Why do we use svoju here instead of moju for "my"?
In Croatian, when the object belongs to the subject of the sentence (the person doing the action), you use the reflexive possessive svoj. Since the hidden subject is "I" (from tražim) and it is your own passport, svoj is required. Using moju here would be understood but sounds unnatural to native speakers.
Why do both svoju and putovnicu end in -u?
They are in the accusative case because they are the direct object of the verb tražim (they answer "What are you looking for?"). Putovnica (passport) is a feminine noun, and feminine nouns ending in -a change to -u in the accusative case. The describing word svoja has to match the noun, so it also changes to svoju.
In English we say "looking for". Where is the word for "for" in the Croatian sentence?
You don't need one! The Croatian verb tražiti inherently means "to look for" or "to search for". It takes a direct object immediately after it, so you never add an extra preposition here.
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