Breakdown of Ambiciozni su i željni novih kvalifikacija.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
nov
new
i
and (additive)
ambiciozan
ambitious
željan
eager
kvalifikacija
qualification
Questions & Answers about Ambiciozni su i željni novih kvalifikacija.
Why is the phrase novih kvalifikacija in the Genitive case here?
The adjective željan (eager / desirous of) dictates that the thing being desired must take the Genitive case. This is a common pattern for Croatian adjectives that express psychological states, desires, or awareness. It functions similarly to how we say "desirous of" in English.
Since the word for "they" (oni) is missing, how does the sentence show who is ambitious and eager?
The verb su (are) indicates a third-person plural subject. Furthermore, the adjectives ambiciozni and željni are in the masculine nominative plural. In Croatian, the masculine plural acts as the default form for a mixed group of men and women, or a group of just men.
Could we start the sentence with the verb and say "Su ambiciozni i željni..."?
No, because su is an enclitic (an unstressed word). A strict rule in Croatian is that enclitics cannot start a sentence or clause; they must take the second position. Here, su correctly attaches right after the first stressed word, ambiciozni.
How is željni related to the verb "to want", and why did the "a" disappear from željan?
Željni is the adjective form built from the noun želja (wish/desire) and related to the verb željeti (to want/wish). The base masculine singular adjective is željan. When making it plural (željni), the "a" drops out. This is a classic example of the "fleeting a", a vowel that appears in the masculine singular but disappears when suffixes are added.
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