Learn Croatian: Želim pivo, ali nemam novac. - I want a beer, but I don't have money.

Želim pivo, ali nemam novac.

I want a beer, but I don't have money.

Breakdown of Želim pivo, ali nemam novac.

ali

but (strong contrast)

Questions & Answers about Želim pivo, ali nemam novac.

Both pivo and novac are the objects of the verbs. Shouldn't they be in the accusative case with changed endings?

They are in the accusative case, but they don't look different! For neuter nouns like pivo and non-living (inanimate) masculine nouns like novac, the accusative form is exactly the same as the dictionary form.

Why is the negative verb nemam written as one single word?

In Croatian, to make most verbs negative, you put the word ne in front of them as a separate word (like ne želim for I do not want). However, the verb to have (imati) is an exception. The ne merges with it to create a single word: nemam, nemaš, nema, and so on.

How do we know who wants the beer if there is no word for 'I' in the sentence?

The ending of the verb tells you who is doing the action. The -m at the end of želim (I want) and nemam (I don't have) specifically means 'I'. You don't need to add the pronoun ja (I) unless you want to emphasize it.