Breakdown of Ti si tamo, a ja sam ovdje.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
a
and / but
ti
you (sg. informal)
ovdje
here
Questions & Answers about Ti si tamo, a ja sam ovdje.
The lesson says Croatian usually drops words like ja (I) and ti (you). Why are they included in this sentence?
While it is true that Croatian frequently drops subject pronouns because the verb already tells us who is acting, we keep them when we want to show contrast or emphasis. Here, we are contrasting two people: Ti are there, and ja am here.
Why do the little verbs si and sam come right after the pronouns?
si (are) and sam (am) are clitics, which are short, unstressed words that must take the second position in a sentence or clause. In the first part, Ti is the first word, so si must be second. After the comma, a new clause starts. ja is the first word of this new section, so sam correctly takes the second spot.
If I wanted to just say 'am here' without emphasizing 'I', how would I say it since sam cannot start a sentence?
Because sam is a clitic, it can never be the very first word in a sentence. If you drop the pronoun ja, you have to put another word first so sam can be in the second position. You would swap the word order and say Ovdje sam.
The English translation says 'and', but the Croatian word is a. Shouldn't 'and' be i?