Breakdown of Tražimo smještaj o kojem smo jučer razgovarali.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
jučer
yesterday
razgovarati
to talk
koji
which
o
about / on (dependent on)
smještaj
accommodation
Questions & Answers about Tražimo smještaj o kojem smo jučer razgovarali.
Why do we use o kojem here instead of just koji or kojeg?
In Croatian, the verb razgovarati (to talk) requires the preposition o (about) followed by the locative case. When you use a relative pronoun to say 'which we talked about', you must put o before the relative pronoun koji, and put koji into the locative case (kojem) to match the masculine singular noun smještaj.
In English we just say 'the accommodation we talked about' and leave out 'which'. Can I omit the relative pronoun in Croatian?
No. In Croatian, you cannot omit the relative pronoun, and you cannot leave a preposition dangling at the end of the sentence like we do in English. You must always use the structure 'the accommodation about which we talked' (smještaj o kojem smo...).
Why is the clitic smo placed right after o kojem?
Clitics like smo naturally want to be in the second position of their clause. In a relative clause, the preposition and the relative pronoun (o kojem) act together as an inseparable block taking up the first position, so the clitic tucks in right behind them.
Why doesn't the word smještaj change its ending, since it is the object of the verb tražimo?
It actually is in the accusative case here because it is the direct object! However, smještaj is a masculine inanimate noun (a thing, not a living being). For masculine inanimate nouns, the accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) form.
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