Word
Moj otac voli biti među ljudima.
Meaning
My father likes to be among people.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Moj otac voli biti među ljudima.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ljudi
people
otac
father
voljeti
to love, to like
Questions & Answers about Moj otac voli biti među ljudima.
Wait, what is the singular form of ljudima?
The singular form is čovjek (man or person). This is a highly irregular noun! In Croatian, čovjek completely changes its stem in the plural to become ljudi (people).
Why is ljudi in the form ljudima here?
It is in the instrumental case because of the preposition među (among). The instrumental plural ending for ljudi is -ima, making it ljudima.
Does među always require the instrumental case?
Not always. When it describes a static location or state like in this sentence (being among people), it takes the instrumental case. If it described motion towards a destination (like stepping into a crowd), it would take the accusative case, which would be među ljude.
Why do we use the infinitive biti instead of a phrase with da?
Because the subject doing the liking and the being is the same (your father). In standard Croatian, when the subject doesn't change between the two connected verbs, it is strongly preferred to use the infinitive (voli biti) rather than connecting them with da.