Breakdown of Njegovo ime je Ivan, a prezime Horvat.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
a
and / but
ime
name
njegov
his
Ivan
Ivan
prezime
surname
Horvat
Horvat
Questions & Answers about Njegovo ime je Ivan, a prezime Horvat.
Since this lesson is about declining surnames, why is Horvat in its base form here?
Because it tells us what the surname is, acting as the complement of the verb "to be" (which is implied here). The verb "to be" always connects to the nominative (base) case. You will use the declension rules from this lesson when a masculine surname is the object of an action or follows a preposition.
Why is the word for "is" missing in the second half of the sentence (...a prezime Horvat)?
It is very common in Croatian to drop the verb in the second clause if it is exactly the same as the verb in the first clause. The verb je (is) from the first half is simply understood to be there again to avoid repetition.
Why is the word for "and" a instead of i?
The conjunction a is used when you are contrasting two things or switching focus to a new, parallel topic—in this case, shifting from his first name to his last name. The word i is used for simple addition, like joining two items in a list.
Why is the word for "his" Njegovo instead of just Njegov?
Possessive pronouns must match the gender of the noun they describe. The word for name, ime, is a neuter noun in Croatian, so "his" must take the neuter ending -o to become njegovo.
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