Breakdown of Svaki igrač mora pomaknuti svoju figuru.
morati
must
igrač
player
svaki
every, each
svoj
one's own
pomaknuti
to move (shift slightly)
figura
piece, figure
Questions & Answers about Svaki igrač mora pomaknuti svoju figuru.
Why is "their" translated as svoju instead of njihovu?
In Croatian, when the subject of the sentence (svaki igrač) is doing something to an object they own, you must use the reflexive possessive pronoun svoj. Because the player is moving their own piece, we use svoju. If you used njegovu (his) or njihovu (their), it would actually mean the player is moving someone else's piece!
Why does figura change to figuru in this sentence?
Figura is a feminine noun. Because it is the direct object of the action pomaknuti (it is the thing being moved), it must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative ending is -u. Notice how the pronoun svoju also takes an -u to match!
Is pomaknuti a perfective or imperfective verb?
It is perfective, meaning it describes a single, completed action (making a single move). If you wanted to describe the continuous or repeated action of moving pieces around, you would use the imperfective form, pomicati.
Why does the English translation say "their" when igrač is singular?
In English, "their" is often used as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun instead of saying "his or her". In Croatian, svaki igrač (every player) is strictly grammatically singular. You don't need to worry about the player's gender anyway, because the ending of svoju is determined by the gender of the object being owned (the feminine figuru), not the owner.
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