Breakdown of Pretražio sam cijeli stan, ali nigdje ga nema.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
ali
but (strong contrast)
nemati
to not have
stan
apartment
nigdje
nowhere
cijeli
whole
pretražiti
to search through
Questions & Answers about Pretražio sam cijeli stan, ali nigdje ga nema.
Why does this sentence use nigdje (nowhere) with nema (is not)? Isn't that a double negative?
Yes! In Croatian, if you use a negative adverb like nigdje, the verb must also be negative. You cannot use a positive verb with a negative adverb in Croatian. Because of this rule, you literally say: nowhere it is not.
Why do we use ga here instead of on to mean it?
The word ga is the short form of on (he or it). When the verb nemati is used impersonally to mean that something is missing or not present, it forces the object into the genitive case. The genitive of on is ga, so nigdje ga nema literally translates to: nowhere of it there is not.
What is the difference between tražio and pretražio?
The verb tražiti means to look for or to search in general. Adding the prefix pre- makes the verb pretražiti, which gives the specific meaning of searching through a physical space completely, from top to bottom. It also makes the verb perfective, showing that the action of searching the apartment is fully completed.
Why doesn't cijeli stan have a different ending since it is the object being searched?
It actually is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb. However, for masculine nouns that represent inanimate objects, like stan, the accusative form looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form. Because of this, cijeli stan does not change its ending.
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