Breakdown of U dvadeset drugom stoljeću kolonizacija Marsa bit će velik pothvat za čovječanstvo.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
velik
big
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
dvadeset
twenty
Mars
Mars
stoljeće
century
za
for (+ accusative)
u
at (a time)
drugi
second
kolonizacija
colonization
pothvat
venture
čovječanstvo
humanity
Questions & Answers about U dvadeset drugom stoljeću kolonizacija Marsa bit će velik pothvat za čovječanstvo.
How does this sentence express the concept of a broad time period?
By using the preposition u with the Locative case. To say 'in the 22nd century', the noun stoljeće (century) changes to its Locative form stoljeću, and it is preceded by u. This is the standard pattern for expressing broad temporal locations like months, years, and centuries.
Why is the number written as dvadeset drugom instead of both words changing to match the Locative case?
In Croatian compound ordinal numbers like 22nd (dvadeset drugi), only the very last word declines. The first part, dvadeset (twenty), remains an unchanging cardinal number, while drugi (second) acts as an adjective and takes the Locative ending -om to agree with stoljeću.
Why does the word Mars take the form Marsa in this sentence?
It is in the Genitive case to express association, translating to 'of Mars'. Where English uses the preposition 'of' for 'the colonization of Mars', Croatian simply uses the Genitive ending -a to connect kolonizacija and Mars.
Why are the future tense words bit će placed together in the middle of the sentence, rather than putting the enclitic će in the second position?
While enclitics like će frequently rush to the second position (which would be right after the time phrase), standard Croatian also allows keeping the subject phrase (kolonizacija Marsa) intact and placing the future tense verb block together after it. Because the infinitive (biti) comes directly before the enclitic, it drops its final 'i' to become bit.
Why is the adjective for 'great' written as velik rather than veliki?
Velik is the indefinite form of the adjective. It is used here because it is describing 'a great venture' (introducing new information). If it were veliki (the definite form), it would imply 'the great venture' as a specific concept that had already been discussed.
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