Word
On to ne zna.
Meaning
He does not know that.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Questions & Answers about On to ne zna.
How do we get zna from the infinitive znati?
The verb znati (to know) is a regular -ati verb. For the "he/she/it" form (3rd person singular), you just drop the -ti from the infinitive. That leaves us with zna!
Why does the word ne go in front of zna?
In Croatian, making a verb negative is very straightforward: you just put the word ne directly before the verb. There is no need for helper verbs like "does" or "do" in English.
Why is the word to placed before the verb?
The word to means "that" or "it". While English puts the object after the verb (as in "He does not know that"), Croatian often places short pronouns early in the sentence, usually right after the first word. Because of this, On to ne zna sounds very natural.
Could I drop the word on and just say To ne zna?
Yes, you can! Because the verb form zna already tells us the subject is a 3rd person singular (he, she, or it), you can often drop the pronoun completely. Including on here just adds a little emphasis, meaning He specifically doesn't know that.