Breakdown of Ovdje nema ni grmljavine ni oluje.
ovdje
here
nemati
to not have
ni
neither, nor
grmljavina
thunder
oluja
storm
Questions & Answers about Ovdje nema ni grmljavine ni oluje.
Why does this sentence use the negative verb nema instead of a positive one like the English 'there is'?
Croatian uses mandatory double negation. Whenever you use the conjunction pair ni... ni... (neither... nor), the main verb must also be negative. You are literally saying 'There isn't neither thunder nor a storm.'
Why are the nouns grmljavine and oluje in the genitive case?
The verb nema (meaning 'there is no') always forces the noun that follows it into the genitive case. The nominative (dictionary) forms of these feminine nouns are grmljavina and oluja, and their endings change to -e in the genitive.
Is the word ni always used in pairs like this?
Not always. When paired as ni... ni..., it means 'neither... nor'. However, ni can also be used on its own in a negative sentence to mean 'not even' or 'neither' (for example, ni ja meaning 'me neither').
If I wanted to say 'There is both thunder and a storm', how would the sentence change?
You would swap the negative nema for the positive ima (there is), and replace ni... ni... with i... i... (both... and). The sentence would be: Ovdje ima i grmljavine i oluje. The nouns stay in the genitive because ima also requires the genitive case.
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