Ovdje ima puno komaraca, tako da me svrbi ruka.
There are a lot of mosquitoes here, so my arm itches.
Breakdown of Ovdje ima puno komaraca, tako da me svrbi ruka.
ovdje
here
ja
I
puno
a lot
imati
to have
ruka
hand, arm
tako da
so
komarac
mosquito
svrbjeti
to itch
Questions & Answers about Ovdje ima puno komaraca, tako da me svrbi ruka.
Why do we use the standard present tense svrbi after tako da?
The conjunction tako da introduces a consecutive clause, meaning it shows the result of the first part of the sentence (often translated as "so" or "with the result that"). In Croatian, these clauses simply take the indicative mood. This means you just use regular, factual tenses like the present, past, or future, without needing any special conditional forms.
Why is the second part phrased as me svrbi ruka instead of using a possessive like "moja ruka"?
In Croatian, bodily sensations are frequently expressed by making the body part the subject (ruka, in the nominative case) and the person experiencing the sensation the object. Here, me is the accusative clitic for "me". Literally, the sentence says "the arm itches me". Because the pronoun me already makes it perfectly clear whose arm is itching, adding a possessive word is unnecessary.
Why is the word for mosquitoes spelled komaraca here?
It is in the genitive plural case because it directly follows the quantity word puno (a lot). The dictionary form is komarac. To form the genitive plural, Croatian inserts an extra "fleeting a" between the final two consonants to make pronunciation easier. This results in komaraca, which you must be careful not to confuse with the genitive singular form, "komarca".
Why does the sentence use the singular verb ima when talking about plural mosquitoes?
The verb imati (to have) is commonly used impersonally in its 3rd person singular form (ima) to mean "there is" or "there are". Even though there are many mosquitoes, the verb remains singular because the mosquitoes are not the grammatical subject. They are the object of the impersonal verb ima, which is exactly why they are forced into the genitive case.
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