Breakdown of Učitelj će pokloniti knjige učenicima.
knjiga
book
učitelj
teacher
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
pokloniti
to gift
učenik
pupil
Questions & Answers about Učitelj će pokloniti knjige učenicima.
How does učenik (pupil) turn into učenicima in this sentence?
učenicima is the dative plural form, meaning "to the pupils". For masculine nouns, the dative plural ending is -ima. Because učenik ends in -k, it undergoes a sound change where k becomes c before the i. So, the root učenik becomes učenic-, plus the ending -ima, giving us učenicima.
How do we know who is receiving the books and what is being given?
Croatian uses grammatical cases to show this! The thing being given (the direct object) is in the accusative case, which is knjige (books). The receivers of the action (the indirect object) take the dative case, which is why we use učenicima (to the pupils).
Is knjige in the nominative case here since it looks like the plural word for "books"?
It looks exactly the same as the subject plural, but it is actually in the accusative plural case here! For feminine nouns that end in -a (like knjiga), both the nominative plural (the subject) and accusative plural (the direct object) happen to share the exact same -e ending.
Why are će and pokloniti separate words here?
This sentence uses the future tense. The grammar rule is that the short helping verb (će) naturally drops into the second position in the sentence. Because the subject Učitelj takes the first position, će takes the second spot, and the full infinitive verb pokloniti (to gift) simply follows.
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