Breakdown of Ovaj koktel je aromatičan jer ima đumbir.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
jer
because
imati
to have
Questions & Answers about Ovaj koktel je aromatičan jer ima đumbir.
Why does the adjective aromatičan have an 'a' before the 'n' here, but not in other forms?
It is in the masculine nominative singular form to match koktel. This 'a' is a fleeting 'a' (nepostojano a). It exists to make the base word easier to pronounce when it ends in a consonant cluster, but it drops out when you add vowel endings for other genders or cases. For example, if you said 'aromatic coffee', it would be aromatična kava, where that 'a' disappears.
Does the word ovaj also have a fleeting 'a'?
Yes! Just like many adjectives, this demonstrative pronoun has a fleeting 'a'. In the masculine nominative it is ovaj, but the 'a' drops out when you change its case. For example, if you talked about this cocktail in the locative case, it would be o ovom koktelu, without the 'a'.
Why is đumbir not changed to đumbira since it is the direct object of the verb?
Đumbir (ginger) is indeed in the accusative case here because it is the object of the verb ima. However, because it is a non-living (inanimate) masculine noun, its accusative form is identical to its nominative dictionary form. It would only get the -a ending if it were a living masculine noun.
Do we need a pronoun before the verb ima to mean 'it has'?
No, in Croatian you generally drop the subject pronouns unless you want to emphasize them. The verb ima is in the third-person singular, and the sentence flow makes it clear that it refers back to the cocktail, so no extra word for 'it' is needed.