Breakdown of Lopov kojeg tražimo je opasan.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
koji
which
opasan
dangerous
lopov
thief
Questions & Answers about Lopov kojeg tražimo je opasan.
Why do we use kojeg here instead of koji?
The pronoun kojeg (whom) connects back to the thief (lopov). Because the thief is the object being looked for by the verb tražimo (we are looking for), the pronoun must be in the accusative case. Since lopov is a masculine, living being (animate), the accusative form is kojeg.
What if we were looking for a stolen car instead of a thief? Would the pronoun change?
Yes! This is the difference between animate and inanimate masculine nouns. If you were looking for a car (auto, which is inanimate), the masculine accusative pronoun looks exactly like the nominative: koji. You would say 'Auto koji tražimo...' (The car which we are looking for...).
Why is the word je in the middle of the sentence? Doesn't it usually need to be the second word?
The word je is a second-position word (enclitic) for the main sentence, which is 'Lopov je opasan' (The thief is dangerous). However, the descriptive clause kojeg tražimo gets inserted right after the noun it describes. This keeps the clause together and pushes je to the very next available spot.
Why does the sentence use opasan instead of opasni?
opasan is the indefinite (short) form of the masculine adjective for 'dangerous'. We use this form when we are stating a fact about the subject using the verb to be (je), translating to 'is dangerous'. You would use the definite form opasni if you were saying 'the dangerous thief' (opasni lopov).
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