Breakdown of U tom slučaju moramo nazvati policiju.
morati
must
nazvati
to call (perfective)
policija
police (f)
u tom slučaju
in that case
Questions & Answers about U tom slučaju moramo nazvati policiju.
Why is u tom slučaju in the locative case rather than the accusative?
The preposition u takes the accusative for motion (destination) and the locative for a static location or state. Even though 'in that case' is an abstract concept, Croatian treats it as a static situation you are currently 'in,' so the locative tom slučaju is used.
Why do we use the perfective verb nazvati instead of the imperfective zvati?
You need the perfective nazvati because you are talking about completing the action of making a specific phone call. If you used the imperfective zvati, it would imply a continuous or repeated action, like calling them over and over, or the general act of ringing them without focusing on the completion of the call.
Could we say moramo da nazovemo instead of moramo nazvati?
Standard Croatian strongly prefers the modal verb morati followed directly by the infinitive (nazvati). While you might hear da plus the present tense (da nazovemo) in some regions or in related languages like Serbian, standard Croatian dictates using the infinitive construction here.
Are there any enclitics determining the word order in this sentence?
No, there are no enclitics (short, unstressed words that strictly take the second position in a clause) in this sentence. This lack of enclitics makes the word order quite flexible. For example, you could say Policiju moramo nazvati u tom slučaju if you wanted to strongly emphasize that it is the police, and no one else, that you must call.
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