Breakdown of Naša ljudina bila je jača od ikojeg medvjeda.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
naš
our
jak
strong
od
than (in comparison)
Questions & Answers about Naša ljudina bila je jača od ikojeg medvjeda.
Why do naša, bila, and jača all use feminine endings if they refer to a "guy"?
This is the main trick with augmentatives ending in -ina. Even though ljudina refers to a male person (natural gender), its grammatical gender is strictly feminine singular. Every adjective, pronoun, and verb in the sentence must match this feminine grammar, hence naša, bila, and jača.
Is ljudina derived from čovjek (man) or ljudi (people)?
It is built from the plural root ljud- (people) plus the augmentative suffix -ina. However, it is used exclusively in the singular to describe one specific person, usually a man who is physically huge, or metaphorically a great guy with a big heart.
Why does the comparison use od instead of nego for the word "than"?
In Croatian, you have two ways to express comparisons. You can use nego followed by the nominative case (nego ikoji medvjed), or you can use od followed by the genitive case (od ikojeg medvjeda). Both are completely correct, but the od plus genitive structure is very common and concise.
What is the difference between using ikojeg and ikakvog here?