Breakdown of Štedjeli smo cijelu godinu i na taj način kupili auto.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
i
and (additive)
auto
car (short form)
kupiti
to buy (perfective)
godina
year
cijeli
whole
štedjeti
to save (money, resources)
na taj način
in that way, thus
Questions & Answers about Štedjeli smo cijelu godinu i na taj način kupili auto.
Why is there no smo before kupili?
Because both verbs (štedjeli and kupili) share the same subject, you only need the auxiliary verb smo once. It acts as the helper for both actions in this sentence: we saved and [we] bought.
Why do we use an imperfective verb (štedjeli) and a perfective verb (kupili) in the same sentence?
The verb aspects reflect the nature of the actions. Štedjeli (saved) is imperfective because it was a continuous process happening over the whole year. Kupili (bought) is perfective because the actual purchase was a single, completed event at the end of that saving process.
Why is cijelu godinu in the accusative case here?
When expressing the duration of an action (answering "for how long?"), Croatian uses the accusative case without any prepositions. Here, it shows that the saving lasted for "the whole year".
Why do we use the preposition na in na taj način instead of u?
While English says "in that way", Croatian uses na (on) to express methods and manners. The phrase na taj način (in that way / thus) is a fixed expression that takes the accusative case.
Learn Štedjeli smo cijelu godinu i na taj način kupili auto and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free