Breakdown of To je djevojčica koja mi je donijela cvijet.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ja
I
to
that
donijeti
to bring
koji
which
djevojčica
little girl
cvijet
flower
Questions & Answers about To je djevojčica koja mi je donijela cvijet.
Why is the relative pronoun koja used here instead of koji?
The relative pronoun must match the noun it describes in gender, number, and case. Because it refers back to djevojčica (little girl), which is feminine and singular, we use the feminine nominative form koja.
Why do the short words mi and je come right after koja?
The word koja starts a new relative clause. Because mi (to me) and je (the auxiliary verb for the past tense) are enclitics, which are short words without their own stress, they automatically jump to the second position of that new clause, right after koja.
Is the word cvijet in the nominative case here?
No, it is in the accusative case because it is the direct object (the thing being brought). However, for masculine nouns that represent non-living things, like cvijet (flower), the accusative form looks exactly the same as the nominative dictionary form.
Since a girl is feminine, why does the sentence start with the neuter word To?
When you are simply pointing someone or something out, such as saying That is or This is, Croatian uses the fixed phrase To je. The pronoun To stays neuter regardless of the gender of the person or thing you are pointing at.
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