Breakdown of Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
Questions & Answers about Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
In Croatian, obitelj (family) is grammatically singular, so the verb that goes with it is also singular:
- Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
→ My family lives in the neighboring street.
This is just like English “My family lives” (not live, in standard American English).
If you specifically talk about the members as a group of people, you use a plural noun:
- Članovi moje obitelji žive u susjednoj ulici.
→ The members of my family live in the neighboring street.
So:
- obitelj → singular noun → živi
- članovi (members) → plural noun → žive
Because obitelj is grammatically feminine, and the possessive pronoun “my” must agree in gender (and case and number) with the noun it modifies.
Nominative singular forms of “my”:
- masculine: moj (moj pas – my dog)
- feminine: moja (moja obitelj – my family)
- neuter: moje (moje dijete – my child)
So you say:
- ✅ Moja obitelj živi…
- ❌ Moj obitelj živi… (ungrammatical)
Susjednoj ulici is in the locative case, feminine singular.
The preposition u (“in”) can take either:
- Locative – when describing location (where something is):
- u susjednoj ulici – in the neighboring street
- u Zagrebu – in Zagreb
- Accusative – when describing movement into something (where you’re going):
- u susjednu ulicu – into the neighboring street
- u Zagreb – to Zagreb
In this sentence you are talking about where they live (a static location), so you use:
- u
- locative → u susjednoj ulici
The basic phrase is:
- susjedna ulica – neighboring street (nominative, “dictionary form”)
But after u meaning “in,” we need the locative case. The adjective susjedna and the noun ulica both change to locative feminine singular and must agree:
- nominative: susjedna ulica
- locative: u susjednoj ulici
So both parts change:
- susjedna → susjednoj
- ulica → ulici
In everyday Croatian, people would normally say:
- Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
The preposition na is usually used with:
- surfaces / open areas: na stolu (on the table), na trgu (in the square)
- many public places/events: na poslu (at work), na koncertu (at the concert), na selu (in the countryside)
For streets, u + locative (u ulici) is the natural choice.
Na ulici tends to mean “on the street” (outside, out in the street) rather than “in that street (as an address).”
So:
- Žive u susjednoj ulici. – They live in the neighboring street (their home is there).
- Djeca se igraju na ulici. – The children are playing in the street / out on the street.
Yes. Croatian word order is more flexible than English. All these are grammatical:
- Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
- U susjednoj ulici živi moja obitelj.
- U susjednoj ulici moja obitelj živi.
However:
- The neutral, most typical order here is the original one:
Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici. - Moving u susjednoj ulici to the start ( U susjednoj ulici živi moja obitelj ) puts more emphasis on the place:
It’s in the neighboring street that my family lives.
So yes, you can change the order, but it slightly changes the focus of the sentence.
Yes, obitelj has a plural: obitelji (families).
- singular: Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
→ My family lives in the neighboring street. - plural: Moje obitelji žive u susjednoj ulici.
→ My families live in the neighboring street.
Here you can see:
- moje obitelji – plural feminine
- žive – 3rd person plural of živjeti
The plural is not used often in this sense, but it appears, for example, when talking about two branches of a family, foster families, etc.
In standard Croatian, the normal word for family is:
- obitelj
You might also encounter:
- porodica – common in Serbian, Bosnian, Montenegrin; in Croatia it’s generally perceived as “Serbian” or regional.
- familija – exists in Croatian but is colloquial; can sound less formal or even slightly negative (“that bunch / clan”).
For standard Croatian, especially in writing or in class, you should prefer:
- ✅ obitelj
Key sounds:
- j – like English y in yes:
- moja → MO-ya
- lj (in obitelj) – like a soft ly, similar to Italian gli or Spanish ll in some dialects:
- obitelj → roughly O-bi-te-ly (one consonant, not l
- j separately)
- obitelj → roughly O-bi-te-ly (one consonant, not l
- ž – like s in measure or zh in Zhivago:
- živi → ZHEE-vee
- susjednoj → SOO-syed-noy (the s here is normal s; the j is y)
- c in ulici (ulici/ulici) – like ts in cats:
- ulici → OO-li-tsi
Croatian spelling is very phonetic: once you know the sound of each letter (and digraphs like lj, nj, dž), pronunciation is usually predictable.
Croatian has no articles like English “a/an” or “the”.
The sentence:
- Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
can mean:
- My family lives *in the neighboring street.
(or, in some contexts: *in a neighboring street – but usually it’s clear from context.)
Definiteness (whether something is specific like “the” or non‑specific like “a”) is shown mainly by:
- context
- word choice and word order
- sometimes possessives or demonstratives (e.g. ta ulica – that street)
Yes, you can, with a small difference in nuance:
- Moja obitelj živi u susjednoj ulici.
→ Neutral, very common. My family lives / resides in the neighboring street. - Moja obitelj stanuje u susjednoj ulici.
→ Focuses more on the place where they are housed / have a flat or house.
Slightly more specific to residential address, but also common.
In most everyday situations, živi is the default and safest choice.