Breakdown of Turist se poskliznuo s mokre stijene.
turist
tourist
s
from, off (+ genitive)
mokar
wet
poskliznuti se
to slip
Questions & Answers about Turist se poskliznuo s mokre stijene.
Why do we use the preposition s here instead of iz to mean 'off' or 'from'?
In Croatian, s (or sa) is used for downward motion or moving away from a surface. Since the tourist was on the surface of the rock (na stijeni), slipping off it requires s. If he were coming out from inside something, you would use iz.
Why is the word se included in this sentence?
The verb 'to slip' is poskliznuti se in Croatian. It is a reflexive verb, meaning it requires the reflexive pronoun se to be complete.
What case is mokre stijene, and what triggers it?
It is in the Genitive case. The preposition s requires the Genitive case when indicating origin or downward motion ('from' or 'off of'). The dictionary form is mokra stijena (wet rock), and both the adjective and noun change their -a endings to -e in the Genitive singular.
Would it be wrong to write sa mokre stijene instead of s mokre stijene?
In standard Croatian, you should use s here. You only add the -a (making it sa) if the following word starts with s, š, z, ž, or certain difficult consonant clusters. Since mokre starts with m, the shorter s is correct.