Breakdown of Da on nije zanemario oprez, ne bi bio izgubio svoj novac.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
ne
no, not
novac
money
izgubiti
to lose
svoj
one's own
da
if (in counterfactual conditionals)
zanemariti
to neglect
oprez
caution
Questions & Answers about Da on nije zanemario oprez, ne bi bio izgubio svoj novac.
Why do we use ne bi bio izgubio instead of just ne bi izgubio?
This sentence uses the Past conditional (Kondicional prošli) to express what 'would have' happened. It is formed using the regular conditional auxiliary (bi), plus the past participle of the verb 'to be' (bio), plus the past participle of the main verb (izgubio). If you just said ne bi izgubio (Present conditional), it would mean 'he would not lose' rather than 'he would not have lost'.
In the 'if' clause, why is nije zanemario in the standard past tense rather than a past perfect tense?
In Croatian, past counterfactual 'if' clauses are introduced by da. After da, you simply use the standard perfect tense (nije zanemario) to express 'if he had not neglected'. Croatian does have a past perfect tense (Pluskvamperfekt), but it is rarely needed in these da clauses because the word da already sets up the unreal, past condition.
Why is it svoj novac instead of njegov novac?
svoj is the reflexive possessive pronoun. You must use it as a B2 refresher whenever the object belongs to the subject of the sentence (he lost his own money). If you used njegov novac, it would mean he lost another man's money.
What case is oprez in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case, acting as the direct object of the verb zanemario (neglected). Because oprez (caution) is an inanimate masculine noun, its accusative form looks exactly the same as its nominative form.
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