Breakdown of Odabrat ću čaj umjesto kave.
kava
coffee
čaj
tea
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
umjesto
instead of
odabrati
to choose (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Odabrat ću čaj umjesto kave.
Why does the word kava change to kave in this sentence?
The preposition umjesto (instead of) always requires the noun that follows it to be in the genitive case. For feminine nouns ending in -a like kava, the genitive ending is -e.
Why is the verb written as odabrat instead of the full infinitive odabrati?
In the Croatian future tense, when a verb ending in -ti comes immediately before the helping verb (like ću), it drops the final -i. If you flipped the word order or used a pronoun, it would keep the -i: Ja ću odabrati čaj.
Since čaj is the direct object being chosen, why doesn't its ending change?
It actually is in the accusative case here! However, because čaj is a masculine inanimate noun (a thing, not a living being), its accusative form is exactly the same as its nominative (dictionary) form.
Could I use the verb birati instead of odabrati here?
You use odabrati here because it is a perfective verb, indicating a single, completed action of making a choice. The imperfective form birati would sound more like an ongoing process (meaning "I will be choosing").
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