Breakdown of Svjesni smo njezinih kompetencija.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
njezin
her
svjestan
aware
kompetencija
competence
Questions & Answers about Svjesni smo njezinih kompetencija.
Why is njezinih kompetencija in the Genitive case here?
The adjective svjestan (aware) requires the object it refers to to be in the Genitive case. This is a common pattern for Croatian adjectives expressing mental states or awareness. Just like English uses the preposition 'of' in 'aware of', Croatian builds that relationship directly into the Genitive case.
The word kompetencija looks exactly like the dictionary singular form. How do we know it is plural here?
For most feminine nouns ending in -a, the Genitive plural ending is also -a (though pronounced with a longer vowel). You can spot that it is plural because the possessive pronoun modifying it, njezinih, is clearly in the Genitive plural. If it were singular, meaning 'of her competence', the phrase would be njezine kompetencije.
Why does the sentence start with svjesni instead of the base form svjestan?
Adjectives acting as the complement of the verb 'to be' must agree with the subject in gender, number, and case. Because the verb smo (we are) indicates a plural subject, the adjective takes the Nominative plural form svjesni. The base form svjestan would only be used for a masculine singular subject.
Could I use njenih instead of njezinih here?