Questions & Answers about Psi vole jesti kosti.
Since kosti (bones) is the direct object here, why doesn't it have a standard accusative plural ending like -e?
The direct object of jesti (to eat) must be in the accusative case. The singular word for bone is kost. Because it is a feminine noun that ends in a consonant, it belongs to the special feminine i-declension. For these nouns, the accusative plural ending is simply -i, giving us kosti.
Is kosti also the nominative plural form?
Yes! A handy feature of feminine i-declension nouns is that their nominative plural (used for subjects) and accusative plural (used for objects, as in this sentence) are completely identical. If you wanted to say 'The bones are big', you would also use kosti as the subject.
The singular word for dog is pas. Why did the 'a' disappear in the plural form psi?
The noun pas contains what is known as a 'fleeting a'. This is a vowel in the final syllable of the base word that drops out as soon as a grammatical suffix is added. When we attach the standard masculine plural ending -i, the 'a' vanishes, shrinking the word down to psi.
Could I say Psi vole da jedu kosti instead of using the infinitive jesti?
You might hear da plus the present tense instead of the infinitive in colloquial speech or in neighboring regions like Serbia. However, in standard Croatian, pairing a verb of preference like voljeti (to like) directly with an infinitive like jesti is the most natural and grammatically correct choice.
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