Ispod starog stabla u parku često sanjam isti san o mirnom moru.

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Breakdown of Ispod starog stabla u parku često sanjam isti san o mirnom moru.

• star: old
• često: often
• park: park

Questions & Answers about Ispod starog stabla u parku često sanjam isti san o mirnom moru.

In the sentence there is no word for I. How do we know it means I dream and not he/she dreams?

Croatian usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who the subject is.

The verb here is sanjam (from sanjati – to dream). Present tense:

• ja sanjam – I dream
• ti sanjaš – you dream
• on/ona sanja – he/she dreams

The ending -am tells you it is 1st person singular, so the subject must be I. The pronoun ja is understood and normally left out unless you want to stress I.

Why is it ispod starog stabla and not ispod staro stablo?

Because of the preposition ispod.

• ispod (under, beneath) always takes the genitive case.
• The noun stablo (tree) in nominative is stablo (what?):
  • nominative: staro stablo – an old tree
• In the genitive singular, stablo becomes stabla (of an old tree):
  • genitive: starog stabla

So after ispod you must use the genitive: ispod starog stabla (under the old tree), not nominative staro stablo.