Breakdown of Kad bi javni prijevoz bio bolji, puno građana bi ga koristilo.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
puno
a lot
ga
him, it (accusative clitic)
bolji
better
bi
would (bi, bismo, biste)
prijevoz
transport
koristiti
to use
kad
if (hypothetical: kad bi + conditional)
javni
public
građanin
citizen
Questions & Answers about Kad bi javni prijevoz bio bolji, puno građana bi ga koristilo.
Why do we use kad bi here instead of ako for "if"?
In Croatian, ako is used for real possibilities. For unreal or hypothetical situations (like public transport being better, when in reality it isn't), you must use kad followed by the conditional. The conditional is formed with the auxiliary verb bi and the l-participle of the main verb (here, the masculine singular bio).
Why is the verb koristilo in the neuter singular form when it refers to a plural group of citizens (građana)?
When the subject of a sentence is a word of quantity like puno (a lot), malo (a little), or a number from five upwards, the verb must take the neuter singular form. Even though građana (citizens) is in the genitive plural, the grammatical subject is the quantity word puno, which requires the neuter l-participle koristilo.
What does the word ga refer to, and why is it placed there?
ga is the accusative short-form pronoun meaning "it" (or "him"), and it refers back to the masculine noun javni prijevoz (public transport). As an enclitic (a short word without its own accent), it must sit in the second logical position of its clause, directly after the conditional auxiliary bi.
Why do we use bolji for "better" instead of bolje?
bolji is a comparative adjective in the masculine singular form, because it is describing the masculine subject javni prijevoz. If you were using "better" as an adverb to describe how an action is done (like "he drives better"), you would use bolje, but here we are describing a noun.
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