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Questions & Answers about Koliko zemalja znaš?
Why is the word for "countries" in the genitive case (zemalja) here?
In Croatian, words expressing quantity like koliko (how many/how much), mnogo (a lot), and malo (a little) must be followed by the genitive case. Since the question is about multiple countries, it uses the genitive plural.
The dictionary form of "country" is zemlja. Why does the plural have an extra "a" in the middle (zemalja)?
When making the genitive plural, Croatian often inserts an "a" between the last two consonants of the word root to make it easier to pronounce. This is known as a "fleeting a". For zemlja, it breaks up the "m" and "lj" consonant cluster, resulting in zemalja.
I learned that poznavati is used for knowing places. Why does this sentence use znaš (from znati)?
You use poznavati when you are personally familiar with a place, like having traveled there. This sentence uses znati because it is asking about factual knowledge—how many countries you know of or can name from memory, rather than how many you have actually visited.