Breakdown of Hrabra ljudina bacila je tešku kamenčinu na medvjeda.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
hrabar
brave
baciti
to throw (pf.)
medvjed
bear (m)
ljudina
big guy
težak
heavy
kamenčina
huge stone
Questions & Answers about Hrabra ljudina bacila je tešku kamenčinu na medvjeda.
Why are the adjective Hrabra and the verb bacila in the feminine form when ljudina means a big guy?
This is the core rule for augmentatives ending in -ina. Even though ljudina refers to a man, it belongs to the feminine declension class because it ends in -a. Grammatical agreement for these words is strictly feminine singular, which is why we must use the feminine adjective hrabra and the feminine past verb form bacila.
How is the word kamenčinu formed, and what grammatical gender is it?
It is an augmentative of the masculine noun kamen (stone). The suffix -čina is added to mean a huge stone. Just like ljudina, it becomes a grammatically feminine noun. Here it is the direct object, so it takes the feminine accusative ending -u (kamenčinu) and perfectly matches the feminine accusative adjective tešku.
Does the word ljudina come from the singular noun for man (čovjek) or the plural (ljudi)?
It is derived from the plural stem ljud- (from ljudi) combined with the suffix -ina. However, despite being built on a plural root, ljudina is grammatically singular and refers to one individual big guy or great man.
Why do we use the accusative form medvjeda after na instead of the locative?
The preposition na takes the accusative case when it shows motion towards a target (throwing the stone at the bear). Because medvjed is an animate masculine noun (a living being), its accusative form gets the -a ending, which makes it look exactly like the genitive case.
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