Breakdown of Čovjek sa štapom ima lijep osmijeh.
čovjek
man
lijep
beautiful
imati
to have
sa
with (before certain consonants)
štap
walking stick / rod (fishing) / cue (billiards)
osmijeh
smile
Questions & Answers about Čovjek sa štapom ima lijep osmijeh.
Why is the word for 'with' sa instead of just s?
The next word štapom starts with the letter š. In Croatian, you must add an 'a' to the preposition s (making it sa) whenever the following word starts with the sounds s, š, z, or ž. This simply makes it easier to pronounce!
How does the word štap change to show the instrumental case here?
The preposition sa meaning 'with' requires the noun to be in the instrumental case to describe what the man has. Since štap (walking stick) is a regular masculine noun, we add the instrumental ending -om to make it štapom.
Why doesn't the object lijep osmijeh change its ending after the verb ima?
It actually is in the accusative case because it is the object being 'had' by the verb ima. However, for masculine non-living things like osmijeh (smile), the accusative form looks exactly the same as the standard dictionary form. The adjective lijep follows this same rule.
Is there a missing word for 'a' before walking stick and beautiful smile?
No, Croatian does not use articles like 'a', 'an', or 'the'. A phrase like lijep osmijeh translates to 'a beautiful smile' or 'the beautiful smile' depending entirely on the context of the sentence.
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