Word
Duboko disanje je dobro za zdravlje.
Meaning
Deep breathing is good for the health.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Duboko disanje je dobro za zdravlje.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
dobar
good
zdravlje
health (n)
dubok
deep
Questions & Answers about Duboko disanje je dobro za zdravlje.
How is the verbal noun disanje formed in this sentence?
The noun disanje (breathing) is created from the imperfective verb disati (to breathe). We form it by taking the verb stem and adding the suffix -nje. This is the standard way to turn an action into a noun in Croatian, very similar to adding "-ing" in English.
Why do both adjectives in this sentence, duboko and dobro, end in -o?
They must match the gender of the noun they describe or refer to. All verbal nouns ending in -nje, including disanje, are grammatically neuter. Therefore, the adjectives dubok (deep) and dobar (good) take their neuter singular endings to become duboko and dobro.
The word zdravlje ends in -je. Is it also a verbal noun like disanje?
No, zdravlje (health) is a standard neuter noun, not a verbal noun. It is derived from the adjective zdrav (healthy). While verbal nouns specifically end in the suffix -nje, many regular neuter nouns in Croatian happen to end in -e or -je.
What case is zdravlje in here, and why didn't its ending change?
It is in the accusative case because it follows the preposition za (for). It might look like it hasn't changed because, for all neuter nouns in Croatian, the accusative case is exactly identical to the nominative (dictionary) form.