Breakdown of Subotom pospremam cijeli stan.
stan
apartment
cijeli
whole
subota
Saturday
pospremati
to tidy up (imperfective)
Questions & Answers about Subotom pospremam cijeli stan.
Why does the word for Saturday end in -om (subotom) here?
The noun subota (Saturday) is in the instrumental case here. In Croatian, using the instrumental case for a day of the week shows that it is a repeated, habitual action. So subotom means "on Saturdays" or "every Saturday".
Why use the imperfective verb pospremam instead of the perfective pospremim?
Because the action happens regularly. Repeated or habitual actions (like doing something every Saturday) always require imperfective verbs in Croatian. If you were talking about tidying the flat just once on a specific day, you would use the perfective pospremim.
Why do the words cijeli stan look like they are in the nominative case if they are the direct object?
They are actually in the accusative case because they are the direct object of the verb. However, for masculine nouns that are inanimate (not alive, like stan), the accusative case looks exactly the same as the nominative case. The adjective cijeli simply matches the noun's form.