Breakdown of To je pisac koji piše novu knjigu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
to
that
knjiga
book
nov
new
pisati
to write / to say, be stated (in a text)
koji
which
pisac
writer
Questions & Answers about To je pisac koji piše novu knjigu.
Why do we use koji here instead of another word for 'who'?
koji is the relative pronoun used to connect clauses, meaning 'who', 'which', or 'that'. In Croatian, it must match the gender and number of the noun it refers back to. Since pisac (writer) is a masculine singular noun, we use the masculine singular form koji. It is in the nominative case because it acts as the subject of the verb piše (is writing).
Why do nova and knjiga change to novu knjigu?
They are in the accusative case because the new book is the direct object receiving the action of the verb piše (is writing). For feminine singular nouns, the nominative ending -a changes to -u in the accusative, and the adjective must match it.
Are the words pisac and piše related?
Yes! They share the same root. pisac is the noun meaning 'writer', and piše is the third-person singular present tense of the verb pisati, which means 'to write'.
Since pisac is masculine, why does the sentence start with the neuter pronoun To?
When pointing something out with the structure 'That is a...', Croatian always uses the fixed phrase To je... (or Ovo je... for 'This is...'), regardless of the noun's gender. You would only use the masculine Taj if it was directly attached to the noun, like in Taj pisac piše (That writer is writing).
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