Word
Sisavci često piju mlijeko, a zubi su im oštri.
Meaning
Mammals often drink milk, and their teeth are sharp.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Sisavci često piju mlijeko, a zubi su im oštri.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
a
and / but
mlijeko
milk
oni
they
Questions & Answers about Sisavci često piju mlijeko, a zubi su im oštri.
Why does the Croatian sentence use a when the English translation uses "and"?
While i means "and", Croatian often uses a to connect clauses when there is a shift in the grammatical subject or a very mild contrast. Here, the first part is about the mammals themselves (drinking milk), and the second part shifts focus to a new subject: their teeth.
Could we use the conjunction odnosno here instead of a?
No, because odnosno means "that is to say" or "or rather" and is used to clarify, restate, or offer an alternative to what was just said. Since having sharp teeth is a completely separate fact rather than a clarification of drinking milk, it wouldn't make sense here.
Why is it zubi su im rather than njihovi zubi su (their teeth are)?
Im is the dative plural of oni (they). This is a classic example of the possessive dative. Croatian strongly prefers using a dative pronoun rather than a possessive adjective (njihovi) when talking about body parts. Literally, the sentence says "teeth are to them sharp."
What is the singular form of sisavci, and why does it lose an "a" in the plural?
The singular is sisavac. The "a" in the final syllable is a "fleeting a" (nepostojani a). This is a very common pattern where an "a" appears in the nominative singular but drops out in most other cases and plural forms, making the plural sisavci rather than "sisavaci".