Breakdown of Rekao bih da je, prema njihovom uvjerenju, projekt loš.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
loš
bad
projekt
project
reći
to tell
njihov
their
da
that (conjunction)
bih
would (conditional auxiliary: bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi)
prema
according to
uvjerenje
belief
Questions & Answers about Rekao bih da je, prema njihovom uvjerenju, projekt loš.
Why is njihovom uvjerenju in the dative case here?
The preposition prema requires the dative case when it means "according to" or "in accordance with". Here, it links the source of the opinion directly to the belief (uvjerenje).
Could I use po instead of prema to express the same idea?
Yes, you could use po njihovom uvjerenju. When expressing someone's opinion or belief, prema + Dative and po + Locative mean exactly the same thing. Because neuter adjectives and nouns share identical endings in the dative and locative cases, the phrase njihovom uvjerenju doesn't even change spelling when you switch the preposition.
Why is the little verb je separated from projekt loš by the phrase in the commas?
The word je is an enclitic (an unstressed word) and strictly follows the second-position rule. The conjunction da takes the first slot in the new clause, so je must immediately follow it. It cannot wait until after the parenthetical phrase to sit next to projekt.
How would this sentence change if the speaker were female?
A female speaker would say Rekla bih instead of Rekao bih. The conditional mood is formed with the active past participle, which must match the subject's gender, followed by the helper word bih.
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