Breakdown of Žive na otoku.
živjeti
to live
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
otok
island
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Questions & Answers about Žive na otoku.
Where is the word for "they" in this sentence?
In Croatian, you often drop pronouns like "they" (oni) because the verb ending already tells you who is doing the action. The verb žive specifically means "they live".
Why is the word for island otoku instead of otok?
Because it comes after the preposition na (on) to show a location. When expressing where something is, masculine nouns like otok take the locative case, which means adding the ending -u.
Why do we use na instead of u here?
In Croatian, islands always take the preposition na (on) to describe location, never u (in). Think of it as being located out on the surface of the landmass.
Where is the word for "an"?
Croatian does not have translation words for articles like "a", "an", or "the". The phrase na otoku translates perfectly to "on an island" or "on the island" depending on what makes sense in context.