Questions & Answers about Volimo se sanjkati nizbrdo.
The current lesson is about the preposition niz + Accusative, but I don't see an Accusative noun here. How does nizbrdo fit in?
Nizbrdo is actually an adverb meaning downhill, formed by fusing the preposition niz (down) and the noun brdo (hill). Because it is functioning as a single-word adverb here, it doesn't decline for case. However, if you wrote them as separate words, niz brdo (down the hill), then brdo would indeed be in the Accusative case. Both are perfectly fine to use!
Why is the reflexive pronoun se placed between Volimo and sanjkati?
Se is a clitic (a small, unaccented word), which means it strongly prefers the second position in a sentence. Since Volimo takes the first spot, se jumps in right after it. Even though the dictionary form of the verb is sanjkati se, saying Volimo sanjkati se sounds unnatural because it pushes the clitic too far back in the sentence.
Is the verb sanjkati se built directly from the noun for a sled?
Yes! The Croatian noun for a sled is sanjke (which is a plural-only noun, much like scissors or pants in English). Croatian frequently turns nouns into verbs this way, so sanjkati se simply means to do the action of using a sled.
If nizbrdo means downhill, how would I say uphill?
You would say uzbrdo. Just as nizbrdo is built using the downward preposition niz, uzbrdo is built using the upward preposition uz. Both function as directional adverbs.
Learn Volimo se sanjkati nizbrdo and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free