Breakdown of Nitko ne bi pronašao netaknut kostur da nismo imali sreće.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ne
no, not
imati
to have
nitko
nobody
bi
would (bi, bismo, biste)
sreća
luck
pronaći
to find
da
if (in counterfactual conditionals)
netaknut
intact
kostur
skeleton
Questions & Answers about Nitko ne bi pronašao netaknut kostur da nismo imali sreće.
Why do we use the standard past tense in da nismo imali for 'if we had not had'?
Why is there a ne before bi if the sentence already starts with Nitko (Nobody)?
Croatian requires double negation. Whenever you use a negative pronoun like Nitko (nobody) or ništa (nothing), the verb must also be negative. That is why we say Nitko ne bi pronašao (literally 'Nobody wouldn't find') instead of just Nitko bi pronašao.
Since netaknut kostur (an intact skeleton) is the object being found, why doesn't its ending change in the accusative case?
Both netaknut and kostur are masculine. In Croatian, inanimate masculine nouns (objects that aren't alive) have an accusative form that looks exactly like the nominative (dictionary) form. If the object were alive, the ending would change.
Why is it sreće instead of the accusative sreću after the verb 'to have'?
The phrase imati sreće (to be lucky / to have luck) traditionally uses the partitive genitive case. The genitive ending -e on sreća gives the meaning of having 'some amount of luck', which is the standard fixed way to express being lucky in Croatian.
Learn Nitko ne bi pronašao netaknut kostur da nismo imali sreće and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free