Breakdown of Izvanredan nam je govor pročitao.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
mi
we
pročitati
to read (perfective)
govor
speech
izvanredan
extraordinary
Questions & Answers about Izvanredan nam je govor pročitao.
Why are the words izvanredan and govor separated by nam je?
By placing the adjective Izvanredan at the absolute beginning of the sentence and letting the clitics (nam je) follow it immediately, the speaker strongly emphasizes how extraordinary the speech was. Splitting an adjective-noun pair like this is a common stylistic tool in Croatian to highlight the adjective.
Does splitting the noun phrase change the strict order of the clitics?
No, the internal clitic order remains exactly the same. The dative pronoun nam still must come before the auxiliary verb je. The entire clitic cluster simply slides into the second position of the sentence, tucking itself right behind the first word of the split phrase (Izvanredan).
Why do izvanredan and govor look like they are in the nominative case if they are the direct object?
They are actually in the accusative case, because they are the direct object of pročitao (read). However, for masculine inanimate nouns like govor, the accusative form is identical to the nominative. The adjective izvanredan must match this, so it also takes the inanimate accusative form. Even though they are separated by clitics, they still strictly agree in case, gender, and number.
If I wanted to explicitly include the word On (He), could I still keep the noun phrase split?
You could, but it defeats the purpose of the stylistic emphasis. If you start with On, the clitics must follow it in the second position (On nam je...). Because Izvanredan is no longer the very first word of the sentence hosting the clitics, the dramatic splitting effect is lost. To emphasize the adjective, it is much better to leave the subject implied.
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