Breakdown of Prženje kave je prava umjetnost.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
kava
coffee
umjetnost
art
pravi
real, genuine; the right one
Questions & Answers about Prženje kave je prava umjetnost.
How is the word prženje formed, and what type of noun is it?
Prženje is a verbal noun meaning the act of roasting. It is formed from the imperfective verb pržiti (to fry or roast) by adding the suffix -nje. All verbal nouns formed this way are neuter.
Why is kave in the genitive case instead of the accusative?
Even though coffee is the object being roasted, it follows a verbal noun (prženje) rather than an active verb. In Croatian, when a verbal noun takes an object, that object must be in the genitive case. You can think of it literally as the roasting of coffee.
I usually see pržiti translated as to fry. Can it mean to roast for everything?
No, it depends on what you are cooking. Pržiti is usually used for frying food in a pan, but it is also the specific term for dry-roasting things like coffee, nuts, or seeds. If you are roasting meat or vegetables in an oven, you must use the verb peći.
The word umjetnost ends in a consonant. Why does it take the feminine adjective prava?
While most nouns ending in a consonant are masculine, words ending in the suffix -ost are almost always feminine abstract nouns. Because umjetnost (art) is feminine, the adjective describing it takes the feminine nominative form prava.