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Questions & Answers about Pas nije mali.
Why is there no article (like the or a) before pas?
Croatian doesn’t use articles. Nouns appear without words for the or a; definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from context or additional words.
What part of speech is pas, and what grammatical case and number is it?
pas is a noun meaning dog. It’s in the nominative singular masculine form, acting as the subject of the sentence.
What does nije mean, and why is it written as one word?
nije is the negative form of the present-tense verb je (3rd person singular of biti, “to be”). In Croatian, ne (negation particle) attaches directly to the verb in most tenses, forming nije instead of ne je.
How does negation work in Croatian verbs like biti?
You place ne before the verb. With verbs beginning in a vowel or j, ne attaches and often triggers a slight change in pronunciation or spelling (e.g., ne + je → nije, ne + odem → ne odem). The verb retains its person, number, and tense.
Why is the adjective mali and not malo?
mali is the masculine nominative singular form of the adjective “small.” malo is either a neuter adjective form or an adverb meaning “a little,” so it doesn’t agree with the masculine noun pas.
Why does mali end in -i here?
Croatian adjectives must agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they modify. For masculine nominative singular, the typical adjective ending is -i, hence mali for pas.
Can I change the word order, for example to Nije pas mali?
Yes. Croatian has flexible word order. Nije pas mali (verb–subject–adjective) emphasizes the negation or contrasts the dog with something else. Pas nije mali (subject–verb–adjective) is neutral.
How would I say the dogs are not small (plural) in Croatian?
You change both noun and verb/adjective to plural: Psi nisu mali. Psi is the nominative plural of pas, nisu is 3rd person plural negative of biti, and mali stays in the nominative masculine plural form.
How can I turn Pas nije mali into a question like “Is the dog not small?”
You can use inversion or the particle li:
• Je li pas mali? – a standard yes/no question (“Is the dog small?” expecting No, the dog is not small).
• In casual speech you might also just use intonation: Pas nije mali?
How would you say The dog wasn’t small (past tense, negative)?
Use the past participle of biti in the negative: Pas nije bio mali. Here bio is the masculine singular past participle of biti.