Breakdown of Taj ugovor nema smisla, osim ako dodamo novu klauzulu.
nov
new
nemati
to not have
ugovor
contract / treaty
taj
that (masculine)
ako
if
osim
except / besides, apart from
dodati
to add
smisao
meaning
klauzula
clause (f)
Questions & Answers about Taj ugovor nema smisla, osim ako dodamo novu klauzulu.
Why is the perfective verb dodamo used in the present tense here?
Normally, perfective verbs (which describe completed actions) cannot be used in the present tense in a main clause. However, after osim ako (unless), it is very common to use the perfective present to describe an action that might be completed in the future. It acts like a future conditional: "unless we [manage to] add."
Could we use the future tense after osim ako instead of the present tense dodamo?
Yes, you could use the Future II (exact future) tense here: osim ako budemo dodali. Both the Future II and the perfective present (dodamo) are perfectly correct and natural for expressing a future condition after osim ako. However, you should avoid using the standard Future I (osim ako ćemo dodati) in this type of conditional clause.
Why is smisla in the genitive case instead of the accusative?
The verb imati (to have) usually takes an accusative object, but the fixed expression imati smisla (to make sense) uses the genitive. It literally translates to "to have [some amount of] sense," using the partitive genitive. This genitive remains exactly the same when the verb is negated into nemati (to not have), giving us nema smisla.
The word for "sense" in the nominative is smisao. Why does the "o" disappear in smisla?
This happens because smisao combines two common sound changes: the "fleeting a" and the "l to o" shift. The root stem is actually smisl-. In the nominative, an "a" is inserted to break up the consonants, and the final "l" turns into an "o" (smisao). In the genitive, the "a" drops out and the "l" returns before the case ending "-a", giving us smisla.
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