Word
Njegov djed je blag čovjek.
Meaning
His grandfather is a gentle man.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about Njegov djed je blag čovjek.
Why does the verb je come after Njegov djed instead of right after Njegov?
The word je is an enclitic, which means it naturally sits in the second position of a sentence. However, a position can be a single word or a whole phrase. Here, Njegov djed (His grandfather) functions as a single, unbreakable noun phrase, so je takes its place right after the entire phrase.
Could we use the reflexive possessive svoj here instead of njegov?
No, you must use njegov here. The word svoj means 'one's own' and always refers back to the subject of the sentence. Because Njegov djed (His grandfather) is the subject itself, there is no earlier subject for svoj to refer back to.
Why is it blag čovjek and not blagi čovjek?
Croatian has two forms for many masculine adjectives: indefinite (like blag) and definite (like blagi). You use the indefinite form when you are describing something with the equivalent of 'a' or 'an' in English (a gentle man). If you were saying 'the gentle man,' you would use the definite form blagi.
I often hear people say deda instead of djed. Are they the same?
Yes, they mean the exact same thing! Djed is the standard Croatian word for grandfather, which you will see in writing and formal speech. Deda (or dida in the coastal regions) is the casual, everyday word most people use in spoken Croatian.