Ova stogodišnjakinja izgleda kao da joj je pedeset.
This female centenarian looks as if she is fifty.
Breakdown of Ova stogodišnjakinja izgleda kao da joj je pedeset.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ona
she
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
kao
like, as
Questions & Answers about Ova stogodišnjakinja izgleda kao da joj je pedeset.
Why do we say joj je pedeset instead of translating "she is fifty" literally?
In Croatian, age is usually expressed using a "dative experiencer" construction. Instead of saying "she is 50" or "she has 50 years", you literally say "to her is 50". Joj is the dative form of ona (she), followed by the verb je (is) and the number.
Why is the word order joj je instead of je joj?
Both joj and je are clitics (short, unstressed words) and they must follow a strict ordering rule. Pronoun clitics in the dative case like joj always come before the auxiliary verb clitic je. They also naturally cluster in the first available slot, which here is right after the conjunction phrase kao da.
How is the long word stogodišnjakinja built, and what is the male equivalent?
It is a compound noun built from sto (one hundred) and godina (year). A 100-year-old man is a stogodišnjak. Adding the common female suffix -inja makes it the feminine form stogodišnjakinja.
In English we say "as if she were fifty." Why does Croatian use the present tense je here?