Breakdown of Pisac traži mudrost u ljudskome duhu.
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
u
in, into
pisac
writer
duh
ghost
mudrost
wisdom
ljudski
human
Questions & Answers about Pisac traži mudrost u ljudskome duhu.
Why is the ending on ljudskome written as -ome instead of the usual -om?
The -e at the end of ljudskome is an optional extra vowel called a phonetic extension (navezak). In the locative case, masculine and neuter adjectives normally end in -om, but you can optionally add -e or -u to make the sentence flow better or sound slightly more formal. Both u ljudskom duhu and u ljudskome duhu are perfectly correct and mean the same thing.
Since mudrost is the direct object, shouldn't it have an accusative ending?
It actually is in the accusative case here! Mudrost belongs to a special group of feminine nouns that end in a consonant (often ending in -ost). For these feminine nouns, the nominative and accusative forms are identical.
Why does u ljudskome duhu use the locative case instead of the accusative?
The preposition u triggers the locative case when it describes a static location (where something is), and the accusative case for destination or motion (where something is going). Here, the wisdom is already located inside the human spirit, so the locative case is used.
Is the root of ljudskome related to the word for people?
Yes, it comes from the noun ljudi (people). By adding the common adjective suffix -ski, we get the base adjective ljudski, meaning human. It then takes the locative ending to match the noun duhu.
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