Word
Ostavili smo dokumente u banci kako bi nam direktor odobrio kredit.
Meaning
We left the documents in the bank so that the manager would approve the loan for us.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Ostavili smo dokumente u banci kako bi nam direktor odobrio kredit.
kako
how
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
u
in, into
banka
bank
Questions & Answers about Ostavili smo dokumente u banci kako bi nam direktor odobrio kredit.
The first part is "we left" (ostavili smo). Why does the second part use bi instead of bismo?
Because the subject changes! In the first part, "we" are the ones who left the documents. But in the purpose clause, the manager (direktor) is the subject. Since he is the one doing the approving, we use the 3rd person singular form bi along with the masculine L-participle odobrio to form the conditional ("he would approve").
Why does the pronoun nam go right after kako bi?
Nam (to/for us) is an enclitic, a "weak" word that naturally wants to jump to the second position in its clause. The phrase kako bi acts as the opening block of the purpose clause, so nam takes the very next slot before the subject (direktor) or the main verb (odobrio).
I see u banci for "in the bank". Why does banka change its k to a c here?
This is a spelling and pronunciation rule called sibilarization. When you put a feminine noun ending in -ka, -ga, or -ha into the dative or locative case, the consonant shifts. Here, we need the locative case for "in the bank", so the k in banka shifts to a c, giving us banci.
Kredit (the loan) is the direct object of the verb. Why doesn't it have an accusative ending like ?