Learn Croatian: Ova stara zgrada ima dvjesto godina. - This old building is two hundred years old.

Ova stara zgrada ima dvjesto godina.

This old building is two hundred years old.

Breakdown of Ova stara zgrada ima dvjesto godina.

ovaj

this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)

Questions & Answers about Ova stara zgrada ima dvjesto godina.

The lesson mentions both dvjesto and dvije stotine. Can I use them interchangeably here?

Yes! Both mean two hundred and are completely interchangeable. The word dvjesto is just a merged, shorter version of dvije stotine and is very common in everyday spoken Croatian.

Why does the sentence use ima (has) instead of a translation for the English word 'is'?

In Croatian, you express age by saying that someone or something has a certain number of years. So instead of saying the building is two hundred years old, you literally say it has two hundred years (ima dvjesto godina).

Why is the word for years written as godina here?

After numbers five and higher, including large numbers like 200, the noun that follows must be in the genitive plural form. For the feminine noun godina (year), the genitive plural happens to look exactly the same as the nominative singular: godina.

Would the words ova stara change if we were talking about an old bridge (most) instead of a building?

Yes. Because zgrada is a feminine noun, we use the feminine adjective forms ova and stara. If you were talking about a masculine noun like most (bridge), you would instead say ovaj stari most ima dvjesto godina.