Word
Dajem psu vodu svako jutro.
Meaning
I give the dog water every morning.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Dajem psu vodu svako jutro.
Why is the word for dog spelled psu here instead of pasu?
The dictionary word for dog is pas, but it contains a fleeting a (nepostojano a). This means the a drops out when you add grammatical endings. Since the dog is receiving the water (the indirect object), it takes the dative case ending -u, making it psu.
Why use dajem here instead of dam?
Dajem is from the imperfective verb davati, which is used for repeated, habitual, or ongoing actions. Because the sentence says this happens svako jutro (every morning), you must use the imperfective form. Dam is the perfective form (dati) and would only be used for a single, completed instance of giving.
How do we know who is getting what, since the word order is different from English?
Croatian uses noun cases to show this rather than word order. Vodu is in the accusative case, which marks it as the direct object (the thing being given). Psu is in the dative case, which marks the receiver or indirect object. Even if you scrambled the words to say Psu svako jutro vodu dajem, the meaning stays exactly the same.
What case is svako jutro in, and why?