Breakdown of Bavim se programiranjem, a moj brat šahom.
a
and / but
brat
brother
moj
my
baviti se
to do, to be engaged in (+ instrumental)
programiranje
programming
šah
chess
Questions & Answers about Bavim se programiranjem, a moj brat šahom.
Why are programiranjem and šahom in the instrumental case?
The verb baviti se (to deal with, to engage in) always requires the object to be in the instrumental case without a preposition. Because of this rule, the nominative nouns programiranje and šah must change to programiranjem and šahom.
Why is there no verb after moj brat?
In Croatian, you can drop the verb in the second half of a sentence if it is the same action as the first half. The complete thought is a moj brat se bavi šahom, but omitting se bavi makes the sentence less repetitive and much more natural.
Why does the translation use the English word and, but the Croatian sentence uses a instead of i?
The conjunction a is used to show a slight contrast or to compare two different subjects doing different things. Here, you are contrasting your hobby with your brother's hobby. Using i would sound like a simple list of disconnected facts, whereas a sets up a direct comparison.
Both nouns are in the instrumental, so why does šah get an -om ending while programiranje gets an -m ending?
Šah is a masculine noun ending in a hard consonant, so it takes the standard masculine instrumental ending -om. Programiranje is a neuter noun ending in -e. For neuter nouns that already end in -e, we simply add -m to form the instrumental case.
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