Breakdown of Klijent će raskinuti ugovor s njim, tako da gubi novac.
on
he
novac
money
klijent
client
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
tako
so, that way
ugovor
contract / treaty
s
with
da
that (conjunction)
gubiti
to waste / to lose
raskinuti
to terminate
Questions & Answers about Klijent će raskinuti ugovor s njim, tako da gubi novac.
How could we use this lesson's target grammar to change the ending to mean "...unless he loses money"?
You can simply replace tako da with osim ako, giving you: Klijent će raskinuti ugovor s njim, osim ako gubi novac. Notice that after osim ako, we just use the affirmative present tense verb gubi. You do not need to add a negative word, making it a very direct translation of the English "unless".
Why is the present tense verb gubi used here if the consequence happens in the future?
In Croatian, it is common to use the present tense in a follow-up clause to express a certain, immediate consequence of a future action. You could use the future tense here (tako da će gubiti novac or izgubiti novac), but using the present gubi emphasizes the direct, inevitable reality of the financial loss.
Why is raskinuti used here instead of its imperfective counterpart?
Raskinuti (to terminate / to break off) is a perfective verb, meaning the action is viewed as a single, completed future event. If the client were somehow in the process of terminating the contract over a long period, or doing it repeatedly, you would use the imperfective form raskidati.
What case is njim in the phrase s njim, and why isn't it written as sa?
It is in the instrumental case. The preposition s (with) requires the instrumental when it denotes an association or involvement with someone. Njim is the instrumental form of on (he). We use s instead of sa because njim does not start with a consonant cluster that makes pronunciation difficult (like s, z, š, or ž).
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