Breakdown of Oni ne znaju odgajati zločesto dijete.
dijete
child
oni
they
ne
no, not
znati
to know
odgajati
to raise (children)
zločest
naughty
Questions & Answers about Oni ne znaju odgajati zločesto dijete.
Wait, I thought this lesson was about the -t- stem for dijete. Why is it just dijete here?
The verb odgajati (to raise) needs a direct object in the accusative case. Because dijete is a neuter noun, its accusative singular form is exactly the same as its nominative form: dijete. The special -t- stem expansion you are learning (like in djeteta or djetetu) only appears in the genitive, dative, locative, and instrumental cases.
Why is there no word for 'how' in ne znaju odgajati?
In Croatian, when you want to say you know 'how to' do something, you simply use the verb znati (to know) followed directly by the infinitive of the action verb. You don't add a separate word for 'how', so ne znaju odgajati translates perfectly to 'they do not know how to raise'.
Why does the adjective zločesto end in -o?
Zločesto (naughty) describes dijete, which is a neuter noun. Neuter adjectives in the accusative singular usually end in -o. Even though a child can be a boy or a girl in real life, the noun dijete is strictly grammatically neuter in the singular, so any attached adjectives must take the neuter ending.
Is odgajati an imperfective or perfective verb?
It is imperfective. Raising a child is a continuous, long-term process rather than a single quickly completed action, so the imperfective form odgajati is the natural choice in this context.
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