Breakdown of Našem djedu je sto godina, on je sada stogodišnjak.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
sada
now
djed
grandfather
godina
year
naš
our
sto
one hundred
stogodišnjak
centenarian (m)
Questions & Answers about Našem djedu je sto godina, on je sada stogodišnjak.
Why is it Našem djedu instead of Naš djed?
In Croatian, age is often expressed using the dative case for the person who has the age. It translates literally as 'To our grandfather is a hundred years.' Because of this, the nominative subject naš djed changes to the dative našem djedu.
Why do we use the singular verb je when talking about a hundred years?
In this dative age construction, numbers from five onwards, like sto, require the verb to be in the third-person singular form, which is je. You only use the plural verb su for numbers ending in 2, 3, or 4.
Why is the word for years godina here? Isn't that the singular form?
It looks identical to the singular form, but it is actually the genitive plural. In Croatian, numbers five and higher require the noun that follows them to be in the genitive plural. For the word godina (year), the genitive plural happens to be spelled exactly the same as the nominative singular.
How does the word stogodišnjak work?
This is a compound noun combining sto (one hundred) and godišnjak (a male person of a certain age, built from the word godina). Croatian frequently uses this pattern to describe a person's age as a single noun, such as tridesetogodišnjak for a thirty-year-old.
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