Breakdown of Ovaj bankomat je odbio transakciju.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
odbiti
to refuse
bankomat
ATM
Questions & Answers about Ovaj bankomat je odbio transakciju.
The verb is odbio. Since the infinitive is odbiti, where did the 'o' come from?
In the masculine singular past tense, the historical -l ending turns into an -o. The base stem is odbi-, so adding the masculine ending originally gave odbi-l, which shifted to odbio over time. If the ATM were a feminine noun, the ending would remain and be odbila.
Why is the perfective verb odbiti used here instead of its imperfective pair?
We use the perfective odbiti because the ATM declining the transaction was a single, completed action. If you wanted to say the ATM was continuously declining or kept declining your card, you would use the imperfective form odbijati.
Are there other useful verbs formed from the same base root as odbiti?
Yes! The base root biti (which historically means to beat or hit, and is completely separate from the verb meaning to be) is highly productive. By changing the prefix, you get common words like dobiti (to get or receive), ubiti (to kill), and razbiti (to shatter).
The word transakciju is a loanword. Do foreign words ending in -tion usually follow this pattern?