Breakdown of Tajnica je primila sve dokumente.
dokument
document (m)
primiti
to receive (perfective)
tajnica
secretary
Questions & Answers about Tajnica je primila sve dokumente.
Does tajnica mean the secretary is specifically female?
Yes. In Croatian, professions usually have distinct male and female forms. A female secretary is tajnica, while a male secretary is tajnik.
Why does this sentence use primila instead of primala?
Primila is from the perfective verb primiti, which shows that the action was completely finished (she received them and it is done). If you used the imperfective primala (from primati), it would mean she was in the middle of receiving them, or that she received them repeatedly over time.
Why does dokumente end in -e instead of -i?
Because it is the direct object of the sentence (the thing being received), so it must be in the accusative case. The word dokument is a masculine noun. While its plural in the nominative (subject) case is dokumenti, the accusative plural ending for masculine nouns is -e.
If the documents are masculine plural, why is the word for "all" sve? Doesn't sve mean "everything"?
While sve can mean "everything" on its own, here it is the accusative plural masculine form of the adjective sav (all). It must match the case, gender, and number of dokumente. The nominative (subject) plural is svi, but in the accusative case, it changes to sve.
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