Question 1

Why is srednjeg rasta in the genitive case here?

Accepted Answer

This is the Genitive of quality. In Croatian, you can use the genitive case to describe a specific characteristic or attribute of a noun, which often translates to "of [attribute]" in English. It always consists of an adjective and a noun together, which is why both srednji (medium) and rast (height/growth) take their genitive forms here.

Question 2

Is onog čovjeka also in the genitive case like the rest of the sentence?

Accepted Answer

No, onog čovjeka is actually in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb vidjeti (to see). However, for masculine animate nouns (living things like a person or an animal), the accusative endings are identical to the genitive endings. If you were asking about an inanimate object like a tree, the accusative would look like the nominative: Vidite li onaj hrast? (Do you see that oak tree?).

Question 3

Does the word rast usually mean "height"?

Accepted Answer

Its primary meaning is "growth", but when describing a person's physical build or stature, it translates to "height". The phrase srednjeg rasta is a very natural, fixed way to say "of average height" in Croatian. You will also frequently see visokog rasta (tall) and niskog rasta (short).

Question 4

Why does the adjective srednji take the ending -eg (srednjeg) instead of -og?

Accepted Answer

The adjective srednji (middle/medium) ends in -nji, meaning its stem ends in the "soft" consonant nj. Because of this, it follows the soft adjective declension. In the genitive masculine singular, soft adjectives take the -eg ending, whereas adjectives ending in standard "hard" consonants take the -og ending (like visokog).

Vidite li onog čovjeka srednjeg rasta?

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