Breakdown of Naš kapetan vozi brod.
voziti
to drive / to ride (a snowboard, skis)
brod
boat, ship
naš
our
kapetan
captain
Questions & Answers about Naš kapetan vozi brod.
Why is voziti (to drive) used for a ship here instead of a word for sailing?
While ploviti means "to sail" or "navigate", everyday Croatian often uses voziti for operating almost any mode of transport, including boats and airplanes. You will also hear upravljati brodom (to pilot a ship), but vozi brod is perfectly natural and common.
Why doesn't the word brod change its ending, since it is the object of the sentence?
Brod is in the accusative case here because it is the direct object receiving the action. However, as a refresher on cases: for masculine nouns that are inanimate (objects and concepts, not living beings), the accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative dictionary form.
Since brod looks the same in both nominative and accusative, how do we know the ship isn't driving the captain?
Grammatically, we know the captain is the subject because naš kapetan is in the nominative case. If the captain were the object being driven, the phrase would have to change to the accusative animate form: našeg kapetana. So the grammar clearly shows who is doing the driving!
Could I change the word order to "Brod vozi naš kapetan"?
Yes, absolutely. Croatian word order is flexible. Because the grammar rules tell us who is the subject and what is the object, you can safely put brod at the beginning of the sentence if you want to emphasize the ship, and the meaning stays exactly the same.