Learn Croatian: Kockica je pod stolom. - The dice is under the table.

The preposition pod (under) takes the instrumental case when describing a static location, which means the dice is just sitting there. If you were describing motion towards that location, such as throwing the dice under the table, you would use pod with the accusative case (pod stol).

Why use the diminutive kockica instead of just kocka for a dice?

Kockica is the diminutive of kocka (cube). In everyday Croatian, kockica is the standard word for a physical playing die used in board games. The base word kocka typically refers to a geometric cube or the broader concept of gambling.

The English translation uses the word 'dice', which is often plural. Is kockica singular or plural here?

Kockica is strictly singular, which you can also tell from the singular verb je. While English speakers commonly use 'dice' for both one or multiple dice, Croatian makes a strict distinction. If there were multiple dice, you would say Kockice su pod stolom.

The word for table is stol. Why does its instrumental form take the -om suffix instead of -em?