Breakdown of Zaigrano štene laje na druge pse.
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
pas
dog
drugi
other, different
štene
puppy
Questions & Answers about Zaigrano štene laje na druge pse.
Why do we use na druge pse (accusative) here instead of the dative case for "at"?
In Croatian, the verb lajati (to bark) is followed by the preposition na plus the accusative case to show the target of the barking. Think of the barking as an action or energy directed towards or onto the other dogs, which triggers the accusative of direction.
What happened to the word pas (dog) to make it pse in the accusative plural?
This is an example of the fleeting 'a' (nepostojano a). The a in the nominative singular pas drops out when we add suffixes for most other cases. The root becomes ps-, and adding the masculine accusative plural ending -e gives us pse.
Štene (puppy) is neuter here, matching zaigrano. How would you say "playful puppies" in the plural?
Young animal nouns ending in -e have tricky plurals. You will usually hear the regularized masculine plural zaigrani štenci. Alternatively, you can use the collective noun zaigrana štenad, which behaves grammatically as a feminine singular noun but means a group of puppies.
How is the adjective zaigrano (playful) formed?