Breakdown of Oni ne jedu povrće, oni jedu samo meso.
oni
they
ne
no, not
samo
only
jesti
to eat
meso
meat
povrće
vegetables
Questions & Answers about Oni ne jedu povrće, oni jedu samo meso.
How does the negation work in ne jedu? In English we say "do not eat".
In Croatian, you simply put the negative particle ne directly in front of the verb. There is no need for a helper verb like "do". So, ne (not) + jedu (they eat) makes "they do not eat". Also, notice that ne and the verb are written as two separate words here.
Do I have to repeat oni (they) in the second part of the sentence?
No, you don't! Croatian often drops subject pronouns because the verb ending (the -u in jedu) already tells us who is doing the action. Saying Ne jedu povrće, jedu samo meso is completely natural and very common. Using oni twice just adds a bit of emphasis.
The English translation says "vegetables" (plural), but is povrće plural in Croatian?
Actually, no. Povrće is a singular neuter noun in Croatian. It is a collective noun, meaning it refers to a whole group of things as a single unit (just like the words "furniture" or "luggage" in English).
What case are povrće and meso in here?
They are both in the accusative case because they are the direct objects of the verb jedu (they are the things being eaten). For neuter nouns like povrće and meso, the accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative (dictionary) form, which makes them very easy to use!
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