Breakdown of Policija traži lopova kojeg si vidio.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
vidjeti
to see
koji
which
lopov
thief
policija
police (f)
Questions & Answers about Policija traži lopova kojeg si vidio.
Why is the relative pronoun kojeg used instead of koji?
The relative pronoun must match the noun it refers to. Here, it refers to the thief, which is the direct object of the relative clause (the person you saw). Because a thief is a living male person, we must use the animate masculine accusative form. In Croatian, the accusative form for masculine animate nouns and pronouns looks exactly like the genitive, so koji becomes kojeg.
Why does the sentence use the singular verb traži when the English translation says "The police are"?
In Croatian, policija is a grammatically singular feminine noun, similar to saying "the police force" in English. Because it is singular, it must take the 3rd-person singular verb form traži (is looking for), rather than a plural verb.
Why does lopov change to lopova in this sentence?
The verb tražiti (to look for) requires its direct object to be in the accusative case. Since lopov is a masculine animate noun (a living being), its accusative form gets the -a ending. If the police were looking for an inanimate masculine object, like a car (auto), the ending would not change.
Why is the auxiliary verb si placed immediately after kojeg?
The word si is an enclitic (an unstressed auxiliary verb used to form the past tense). Croatian grammar strictly requires enclitics to take the second position in their clause. The relative clause here is kojeg si vidio (whom you saw). Since kojeg is the first word of that clause, si must tuck in right behind it.
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