Word
Htio bih razgovarati s jednim Meksikancem.
Meaning
I would like to speak with a Mexican.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Htio bih razgovarati s jednim Meksikancem.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
jedan
one
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
razgovarati
to talk
Questions & Answers about Htio bih razgovarati s jednim Meksikancem.
Why is the word for a Mexican Meksikancem here instead of Meksikanacom?
The base word for a male Mexican is Meksikanac, which uses the common suffix -ac to show nationality. When it changes cases, it loses its final 'a' (a rule called the 'fleeting a'). Because the new stem ends in the soft consonant 'c' (Meksikanc-), the instrumental case takes the ending -em instead of the standard -om.
Does Htio bih tell us anything about the person speaking?
Yes! Htio is the masculine past participle of htjeti (to want). This means the person speaking is male. If a female speaker were saying this, she would use the feminine form and say Htjela bih.
Why is the preposition s used here instead of sa?
The preposition s (meaning 'with' when used with the instrumental case) only expands to sa if the following word starts with a similar hissing sound (like s, z, š, or ž) to make pronunciation easier. Since the next word is jednim, the short form s works perfectly.
Why is the word for 'one' (jednim) included? Does the speaker mean exactly one Mexican?