Word
Je li simpatičnija od svoje majke?
Meaning
Is she more likeable than her mother?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Je li simpatičnija od svoje majke?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
majka
mother
svoj
one's own
Questions & Answers about Je li simpatičnija od svoje majke?
How do we say "than" in this sentence?
We use the preposition od. In Croatian, one of the most common ways to compare two things is to use od (which usually means "from") followed by the genitive case.
Why does svoje majke end in -e?
The preposition od always forces the words that follow it into the genitive case. The dictionary forms are svoja majka (her own mother). In the genitive case, feminine singular words ending in -a change their ending to -e.
Why use svoje instead of njene for "her"?
We use the reflexive possessive pronoun svoj (here in its genitive form, svoje) whenever the object belongs to the subject of the sentence. Since the subject "she" is being compared to her own mother, we must use svoje. If you used njene, it would mean she is being compared to some other woman's mother!
How do we know the hidden subject is "she"?
The comparative adjective simpatičnija (more likeable) is in the feminine form. If we were asking about a man, the word would be simpatičniji, and for a neuter subject, it would be simpatičnije.