Breakdown of Ne znam ništa o romanu u kojem autor spominje taj grad.
grad
city
ne
no, not
znati
to know
u
in, into
autor
author
koji
which
ništa
nothing
o
about / on (dependent on)
taj
that (masculine)
roman
novel (m)
spominjati
to mention
Questions & Answers about Ne znam ništa o romanu u kojem autor spominje taj grad.
Why do we use u kojem here instead of just koji?
Kojem is the locative case of the relative pronoun koji (which). It is in the locative case because it follows the preposition u (in). It takes the masculine form to match the noun it refers back to, roman (novel). Together, u kojem translates perfectly to "in which".
Why does the word for novel become romanu?
The preposition o (about) always requires the following noun to be in the locative case. Because roman is a regular masculine noun, it takes the -u ending in the locative, giving us o romanu.
Why does the sentence use ne znam ništa, which literally means "I don't know nothing"?
Croatian requires double negation! Whenever you use a negative pronoun like ništa (nothing/anything) or nitko (nobody/anybody), the verb must also be negative. That is why you must say Ne znam ništa to mean "I do not know anything".
If taj grad (that city) is the object of the verb spominje (mentions), why doesn't its ending change?
Taj grad is indeed in the accusative case here because it is the direct object. However, for masculine inanimate nouns (non-living things like a city), the accusative form is identical to the dictionary (nominative) form. It only changes its ending if the masculine noun is a living being.
Learn Ne znam ništa o romanu u kojem autor spominje taj grad and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free