Breakdown of Nezaposleni ljudi traže posao.
čovjek
man
tražiti
to look for / to demand, request
posao
job / work
nezaposlen
unemployed
Questions & Answers about Nezaposleni ljudi traže posao.
Could you just say Nezaposleni traže posao without the word ljudi?
Yes! Just like in English when we say the unemployed, Croatian often uses adjectives as nouns. In that case, nezaposleni acts as the noun and subject on its own.
Why does posao look like it is in the nominative case if it is the direct object?
It is actually in the accusative case because it is the object of the verb traže. However, because posao is a masculine inanimate noun (it represents a non-living thing), its accusative form is exactly the same as its nominative form.
How would this sentence change if they were looking for multiple jobs?
You would replace posao with poslove. The noun posao is tricky because its base stem is posl-. The 'a' is a fleeting vowel that drops out, and the final 'o' changes back to an 'l' when adding most endings, making the accusative plural poslove.
Why use traže instead of a perfective verb here?
The verb tražiti is imperfective, which matches the ongoing, unresolved action of seeking work. You cannot use a perfective verb for a continuous search; you would instead use a perfective verb like naći (to find) to describe the final result of that search.