Breakdown of Moj sin je drugačiji od svog djeda.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
sin
son
djed
grandfather
od
from
moj
my
svoj
one's own
drugačiji
different (of another kind)
Questions & Answers about Moj sin je drugačiji od svog djeda.
Why do we use od here, and what case follows it?
The preposition od is used to make comparisons, translating to English as from or than. It always forces the following words into the genitive case. That is why the base phrase svoj djed changes into the genitive form svog djeda.
Why does the sentence use svog instead of njegovog for his?
The word svog is the genitive form of svoj, a special possessive pronoun used when the owner is the subject of the sentence. Because the son is the subject and it is his own grandfather, Croatian uses svoj. If you used njegovog, it would sound like he is different from some other person's grandfather.
What case is drugačiji in, and why?
The word drugačiji is an adjective meaning different. Because it describes the subject of the sentence, sin, it must be in the nominative case. It is also masculine and singular to perfectly match sin.
What is the base form of djeda?
The dictionary form is djed (grandfather). Because it comes after the preposition od, it must take the genitive case. For most masculine nouns ending in a consonant, we just add the ending -a, making it djeda.
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