Breakdown of Čujem neki čudan zvuk, ali to nije tvoj glas.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
to
that
ne
no, not
ali
but (strong contrast)
tvoj
your (informal)
čuti
to hear
čudan
strange
neki
some
glas
voice
zvuk
sound
Questions & Answers about Čujem neki čudan zvuk, ali to nije tvoj glas.
Why is čujem used here instead of slušam?
Slušati means "to listen" (an ongoing action you do on purpose), while čuti means "to hear" (the result of a sound reaching your ears). These verbs act as a pair where slušati is the imperfective process and čuti is the perfective result. However, čuti is a special verb because it can also act as an imperfective verb in the present tense, exactly as it does here to mean "I hear" or "I am hearing".
Why don't the words in neki čudan zvuk have special direct object endings?
They are the direct object of the verb, so they are in the accusative case! However, for masculine nouns that are non-living (inanimate) like zvuk (sound), the accusative case looks exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) form. If the masculine noun were a living being, you would see the -og(a) ending on the adjectives instead.
Both zvuk and glas mean something we hear. What is the difference?
Zvuk is a general word for "sound" or "noise." Glas, on the other hand, specifically means "voice" (usually a human voice). In this sentence, the speaker hears a generic sound (zvuk) and points out that it isn't the other person's voice (glas).
Why does the sentence use to (that) if glas is a masculine noun?
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