Breakdown of Tavan je mjesto s kojeg sam nedavno donio stari album.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
star
old
mjesto
place / space, room
donijeti
to bring
koji
which
tavan
attic
s
from, off (+ genitive)
nedavno
recently
album
album
Questions & Answers about Tavan je mjesto s kojeg sam nedavno donio stari album.
Why do we use kojeg in this sentence, and what does it refer to?
kojeg is the Genitive singular form of the relative pronoun koji. It takes its neuter, singular form to match the noun it refers back to: mjesto (place). However, its case is determined by its role in its own clause. Here, it must be in the Genitive case because it directly follows the preposition s (from).
Why is the preposition s used for 'from' instead of iz?
In Croatian, the preposition you use for 'from' depends on how you say you are going 'to' that place. You go na tavan (to the attic), treating it grammatically as a surface. Because you use na to go there, you must use s (with the Genitive case) to say you are coming from there. If you were leaving a closed space you went into using u, you would use iz.
Why is the word sam placed right after s kojeg?
sam is a clitic, which is a short word that strictly requires the second position in its clause. The phrase s kojeg acts as a single, unbreakable grammatical block occupying the first position. Therefore, sam drops into the second slot immediately following it.
What case is stari album, and why does it look like the Nominative form?
It is in the Accusative case because it is the direct object of the action (the thing being brought). Because album is a masculine inanimate noun (a non-living thing), its Accusative form is completely identical to its Nominative form.
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