Breakdown of Nedostaje mi kuća iz koje smo se davno preselili.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ja
I
kuća
house
iz
out of
koji
which
preseliti se
to move (residence)
nedostajati
to miss / to be lacking
davno
long ago
Questions & Answers about Nedostaje mi kuća iz koje smo se davno preselili.
Why do we use koje here instead of koja to refer to the house?
The relative pronoun must match the gender and number of the noun it refers to (the feminine singular kuća), but its case depends on its role in its own clause. Here, it follows the preposition iz (from/out of), which always requires the Genitive case. So, the feminine nominative koja becomes the feminine genitive koje.
Why is the sentence structured as Nedostaje mi kuća rather than starting with the Croatian word for 'I'?
The verb nedostajati (to miss) works backward compared to English. The thing being missed is the grammatical subject (in the Nominative case: kuća), while the person who misses it is the indirect object (in the Dative case: mi). Literally, this means 'The house is lacking to me.'
Why do we need the word se with preselili?
It belongs to the reflexive verb preseliti se, which means 'to move' in the sense of changing your home or residence. If you drop the se, the verb preseliti means to relocate something else (like moving a couch to another room).
Why are smo and se placed right after iz koje?
This happens because of Croatian's strict word order rules for enclitics (short, unaccented words). Both smo and se are enclitics, so they must cluster together in the second position of their clause. The phrase iz koje acts as the first grammatical block, so the enclitics lock in right after it.
Learn Nedostaje mi kuća iz koje smo se davno preselili and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free