Breakdown of Djevojčica koja stoji u sobi čita pismo.
soba
room
pismo
letter
čitati
to read
u
in, into
koji
which
stajati
to stand
djevojčica
little girl
Questions & Answers about Djevojčica koja stoji u sobi čita pismo.
Why is koja used here instead of koji?
Koja is the relative pronoun meaning who or which. It must match the noun it replaces in gender, number, and case. Because djevojčica (little girl) is feminine, singular, and the subject of the sentence (nominative case), the pronoun must be the feminine singular nominative form koja.
The English translation says is standing and is reading, but there is no word for is (je) in the Croatian sentence. Why?
Croatian does not have a continuous tense like the English -ing form. The present tense verbs stoji and čita translate to both stands/reads and is standing/is reading. Adding the verb je here would be incorrect.
Why does the word for room change to sobi in this sentence?
The preposition u meaning in or inside requires the locative case when describing a static location. The dictionary form of the word is soba, which is a feminine noun. In the locative case, the ending -a changes to -i, giving us u sobi.
The word pismo ends in -o. Does that mean it is in the nominative case here?
No, pismo is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the action (it is the thing being read). However, for neuter nouns like pismo, the accusative form is identical to the nominative form, so the word does not change its ending.
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