Breakdown of Čim stigne onaj Nijemac, počet ćemo sastanak.
sastanak
meeting
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
početi
to begin
stići
to arrive
čim
as soon as
onaj
that (over there) / the one (who)
Nijemac
German man
Questions & Answers about Čim stigne onaj Nijemac, počet ćemo sastanak.
The word for a German person here is Nijemac. What happens to this word in the plural?
It follows the regular pattern for demonyms ending in -ac. The a is a "fleeting a", meaning it disappears when we add an ending. To make it plural, we drop the a and add -i, giving us Nijemci (Germans).
Does the word sastanak (meeting) follow a similar spelling rule to Nijemac?
Yes! Both words have a "fleeting a" in their final syllable. Just like Nijemac becomes Nijemci in the plural, sastanak drops the a to become sastanci (the k also changes to c before the i). In this sentence, however, sastanak is singular and in the accusative case, which looks exactly like the nominative because it is an inanimate object.
Why is it written as počet ćemo and not početi ćemo?
When the future tense helper verb (like ćemo, ćeš, or će) comes immediately after an infinitive ending in -ti, the final -i of the infinitive is dropped. This reflects natural pronunciation. If the word order were reversed, the -i would remain: mi ćemo početi.
Why is the present tense verb stigne used here to talk about a future meeting?
The word čim means "as soon as". In Croatian, when you are talking about an event that will happen and finish before a second future event, you use the present tense of a perfective (completed action) verb right after čim. Here, stigne is the present tense of the perfective verb stići (to arrive).
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