Breakdown of Kad vidim svoje stare bilješke, vidim koliko sam već napredovala na tom tečaju.
biti
to be
star
old
vidjeti
to see
kad
when
Questions & Answers about Kad vidim svoje stare bilješke, vidim koliko sam već napredovala na tom tečaju.
Why is it Kad and not Kada? Are they different?
Kad is just a shorter, more colloquial form of kada.
- In most contexts they are interchangeable: Kad vidim… = Kada vidim…
- Kada can sound a bit more formal or emphatic, and is preferred in careful writing or when you want to stress the time.
- In everyday speech, kad is extremely common and completely correct here.
Why is it svoje stare bilješke and not moje stare bilješke?
Svoje is the reflexive possessive pronoun, used when the owner is the subject of the sentence (here: “I”).
- General rule: if the subject owns the thing, use svoj (svoj, svoja, svoje…) rather than moj/tvoj/njegov…
- Kad vidim svoje stare bilješke… = When I see my own old notes.
- Moje stare bilješke is not wrong, but svoje is more natural and is the default in such sentences.
- With third person subjects, svoj is especially important to avoid ambiguity:
- On je pokazao svoje bilješke. = He showed his own notes.
- On je pokazao njegove bilješke. = He showed someone else’s notes (another man’s).
What case is svoje stare bilješke in, and why?