Word
Zid u podrumu slabi uslijed vlage.
Meaning
The wall in the basement is weakening due to moisture.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Zid u podrumu slabi uslijed vlage.
u
in, into
zid
wall
podrum
basement
slabjeti
to weaken (imperfective)
Questions & Answers about Zid u podrumu slabi uslijed vlage.
What is the difference between using uslijed and the more common zbog here?
Uslijed means "due to" or "as a result of" and is slightly more formal and specific than the general zbog ("because of"). It strongly emphasizes a direct, often physical, cause-and-effect relationship—like moisture causing a wall to degrade. You will frequently encounter it in news, scientific, or technical contexts.
Why does the word vlaga (moisture) change to vlage in this sentence?
The preposition uslijed always requires the noun that follows it to be in the genitive case. Since vlaga is a feminine noun ending in -a, its genitive form drops the -a and takes an -e, becoming vlage.
The verb slabi means "is weakening". How is this verb formed, and shouldn't it have a reflexive se?
Slabi comes from the verb slabjeti (to become weak), which is built directly from the adjective slab (weak). It is an intransitive verb, meaning the action inherently describes a change happening to the subject itself. Because the verb's built-in meaning is "to get weaker" rather than "to make something else weaker", it doesn't need the reflexive pronoun se.
Just as a refresher, why do we use the locative case u podrumu instead of the accusative u podrum?