Breakdown of Nitko nije došao osim njega.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
doći
to come, to arrive
nitko
nobody
osim
except / besides, apart from
Questions & Answers about Nitko nije došao osim njega.
What case does the preposition osim require in this sentence?
It requires the genitive case. That is why we use njega (the genitive of on, meaning he), rather than the nominative on.
Why is the verb negative (nije došao) if the English translation is positive?
Croatian requires double negation. Whenever you use a negative word like nitko (nobody), the verb must also be negative. Literally, this sentence says 'Nobody didn't come.'
Why do we use the long pronoun njega here instead of the short form ga?
Prepositions like osim always require the long, stressed forms of personal pronouns. You can never put a short, unstressed clitic like ga right after a preposition.
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