Breakdown of Ova stara odjeća je nešto što možeš donirati.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
star
old
moći
can
nešto
something
odjeća
clothes
što
which, that (relative pronoun)
donirati
to donate
Questions & Answers about Ova stara odjeća je nešto što možeš donirati.
Why do we use što here instead of a form of koji for the word 'that'?
Because the word 'that' refers back to the indefinite pronoun nešto (something). When a relative pronoun refers back to indefinite words like sve (everything), nešto (something), or ništa (nothing), Croatian always uses što instead of the standard relative pronoun koji.
Why does the Croatian sentence use singular words (Ova stara odjeća je) when the English translation is plural ('These old clothes are')?
The Croatian word for clothes, odjeća, is a collective noun that is grammatically feminine singular. It works exactly like the English word 'clothing'. Because it is singular, the demonstrative ova, the adjective stara, and the verb je all must take the feminine singular form.
Could I use the word da instead of što in this sentence to mean 'that'?
No, because što is acting as a relative pronoun here, meaning it stands in for the physical thing you are donating. The word da is used as a conjunction to connect clauses (for example, 'I know that you can donate it'), but it cannot act as a pronoun representing a noun.
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