Breakdown of Ti živiš ovdje, a mi živimo tamo.
a
and / but
ti
you (sg. informal)
ovdje
here
tamo
there
mi
we
živjeti
to live
Questions & Answers about Ti živiš ovdje, a mi živimo tamo.
The dictionary form of the verb to live is "živjeti". Why do "živiš" and "živimo" use an "i" instead of "je"?
Even though the infinitive ends in -jeti, this verb belongs to a group that uses -i- endings in the present tense. Instead of keeping the "je", the stem becomes živ- and we add the regular -i- endings: živiš (you live) and živimo (we live).
Since Croatian usually drops subject pronouns, why are "ti" and "mi" included in this sentence?
You usually drop pronouns because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. However, pronouns are kept when we want to emphasize a contrast. Here, the speaker is strongly contrasting where you (ti) live versus where we (mi) live.
The English translation says "and we live there", but the Croatian word used is "a" instead of "i". Why is that?
The word a is a special conjunction used for contrast, translating to "and", "but", or "whereas". Because the sentence contrasts two completely different situations (living here versus living there), a is the correct choice. The word i is used for simply adding things together, like items on a list.
Are the words "ovdje" and "tamo" used for any kind of "here" and "there"?
These specific words are used for static locations, meaning they answer the question "where at?". This makes them the perfect match for a stationary verb like živjeti (to live). If you were talking about moving towards a destination, Croatian uses slightly different words for "here" and "there".
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