Breakdown of Uproljeće želimo saditi lijepo cvijeće u vrtu.
lijep
beautiful
željeti
to want
u
in, into
vrt
garden
uproljeće
in the spring
saditi
to plant
cvijeće
flowers
Questions & Answers about Uproljeće želimo saditi lijepo cvijeće u vrtu.
Why is 'beautiful flowers' translated as lijepo cvijeće instead of a plural form?
cvijeće is an inanimate collective noun ending in -je. Even though it refers to a plural concept (a general mass of flowers), it acts grammatically as a singular neuter noun. That is why the adjective lijepo is in the neuter singular form, not a plural form. If you were counting individual blooms, you would use the regular plural cvjetovi.
What case is lijepo cvijeće in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object being planted. For all neuter nouns in Croatian, the accusative case is identical to the nominative (dictionary) case, so the form does not change.
Why is 'in the spring' written as a single word (uproljeće) here?
In Croatian, certain very common prepositional phrases about time can be written as a single merged word functioning as an adverb. You will often see both the merged form (uproljeće) and the two-word form (u proljeće); both are perfectly correct.
Why do we use the locative case for u vrtu here instead of the accusative?
The preposition u takes the locative case when describing a static location (answering 'where?'). Because the planting is happening inside the garden, it is locative. If you were expressing movement towards or into the garden (answering 'where to?'), you would use the accusative case (u vrt).
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