Breakdown of Netko vidje našu propast, ali nitko ništa ne reče.
ne
no, not
ali
but (strong contrast)
vidjeti
to see
reći
to tell
naš
our
netko
someone
nitko
nobody
ništa
nothing
propast
ruin
Questions & Answers about Netko vidje našu propast, ali nitko ništa ne reče.
The verb vidje looks strange. Is this the aorist tense of vidjeti?
Yes. While vidjeti is a bi-aspectual verb, here it takes on its perfective meaning (completed action). In the aorist tense, the 3rd person singular drops the infinitive ending and becomes vidje (someone saw). You will mostly see this short form in literature or storytelling to make an action feel sudden and finalized.
How does the infinitive reći transform into reče in this sentence?
The verb reći (to say) has a historical stem ending in a consonant (rek-). In the 3rd person singular aorist, the -k changes to -č due to a sound change called palatalization before the ending -e, giving us the classic literary form reče.
Why does the feminine noun propast (ruin) have no ending in the accusative phrase našu propast?
The word propast belongs to a special group of feminine nouns that end in a consonant (the i-declension). For these nouns, the accusative singular is identical to the nominative singular. This is why it doesn't get an -u ending, even though the possessive pronoun našu takes the regular feminine accusative form.
Why are there three negative words (nitko, ništa, ne) in the second half of the sentence?
Croatian uses strict negative concord, which is easy to forget if you are thinking in English. If the main verb is negated like ne reče, all indefinite pronouns in the same clause must also take their negative forms. So instead of saying 'nobody said anything', Croatian literally says 'nobody nothing not said' (nitko ništa ne reče).
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