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Slušam, ali ne čujem pjesmu.

Slušam, ali ne čujem pjesmu.
I am listening, but I do not hear the song.
From Lesson 85:Irregular perfective verbs·Croatian

Questions & Answers about Slušam, ali ne čujem pjesmu.

Are slušati and čuti considered an aspectual pair?
Yes, they function as a "suppletive" pair, which is exactly what this lesson is about! Instead of adding a prefix to the same base word, Croatian uses two entirely different words to show the process versus the result. Slušati is the ongoing effort (listening), while čuti is the successful result (hearing).
Why does the verb čujem have a j in it?
The infinitive of the verb is čuti (to hear). Verbs that end in -uti usually insert a -j- before their present tense endings. This puts it in the e-conjugation group for the present tense: čujem, čuješ, čuje, etc.
Why is the word for "song" written as pjesmu instead of pjesma?
Pjesmu is the accusative case of the feminine noun pjesma. We use the accusative case here because the song is the direct object of the sentence—it is the thing that is not being heard. Feminine nouns ending in -a change their ending to -u in the accusative.
Why are ne and čujem written as two separate words?
In Croatian, the negative particle ne is almost always written separately right before the verb it negates. The only times they are combined into one word are with a few highly irregular verbs you learned earlier, such as biti (nisam), htjeti (neću), and imati (nemam).

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