Breakdown of To je staro prijateljstvo od kojeg ne želim odustati.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
to
that
star
old
ne
no, not
željeti
to want
od
from
koji
which
odustati
to give up
prijateljstvo
friendship
Questions & Answers about To je staro prijateljstvo od kojeg ne želim odustati.
Why do we use kojeg instead of just koje for a neuter noun like prijateljstvo?
The relative pronoun koji agrees in gender and number with the noun it replaces (the neuter singular prijateljstvo), but its case depends on the grammar of its own clause. Here, it follows the preposition od, which always takes the Genitive case. The neuter Genitive form of koji is kojeg (or kojega).
Why is the preposition od used here to mean 'on'?
Prepositions rarely translate word-for-word between English and Croatian. In Croatian, the verb odustati (to give up / to back out) naturally pairs with the preposition od (from) plus the Genitive case. So, instead of giving up 'on' something, in Croatian you literally give up 'from' it.
Can I place the preposition od at the very end of the sentence like we do in English?
No, Croatian does not allow 'stranded' prepositions at the end of a clause. A preposition must always appear directly before the noun or pronoun it governs, which is why od has to go right before kojeg.
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