Breakdown of Novi predstavnik je Amerikanac.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
nov
new
predstavnik
representative
Amerikanac
American man
Questions & Answers about Novi predstavnik je Amerikanac.
What is the plural of Amerikanac?
To make the plural, you drop the fleeting a from the -ac suffix and add the regular masculine plural -i. This makes Amerikanci. For comparison, a female American is an Amerikanka.
Could I use the word američki instead of Amerikanac in this sentence?
No, because američki is an adjective, but the sentence structure requires a noun here to say he is an American person. You could, however, rephrase it using the adjective: Novi američki predstavnik (The new American representative). Remember that nationality adjectives are not capitalized in Croatian.
Why does Novi end with an -i here?
This is the definite masculine adjective ending. Because we are talking about a specific person (The new representative), we use Novi. If we wanted to say A new representative, we would use the indefinite form nov.
What verb does the noun predstavnik come from?
It comes from the verb predstaviti (to present or introduce). The suffix -nik is added to indicate a person who performs that action, similar to the English suffix -ive in representative or -er in worker.