Questions & Answers about Mačka leži na tepihu.
Word by word:
- mačka – cat
- leži – lies / is lying (3rd person singular of ležati – to lie, to be lying)
- na – on
- tepihu – carpet, rug in the locative case (base form: tepih – carpet, rug)
So the whole sentence means: “The cat is lying on the carpet.” (or “A cat is lying on the carpet,” depending on context).
Croatian has no articles (no the, a, or an).
Mačka can mean “a cat” or “the cat”.
Which one is meant depends entirely on context and what the speakers know:- If both speakers know which cat they’re talking about, it’s understood as “the cat is lying on the carpet.”
- If it’s mentioned for the first time or not specific, it can be understood as “a cat is lying on the carpet.”
You don’t change the Croatian sentence; you only change how you interpret or translate it in English.
Yes. The ending -a on mačka tells you two useful things:
Gender:
- mačka is a feminine noun (most nouns ending in -a are feminine in Croatian).
Case and role in the sentence:
- Here mačka is in the nominative singular, which is the dictionary form and is used mainly for the subject of the sentence.
- The subject is the thing doing the action. Here, the cat is doing the action of lying, so it’s in the nominative: Mačka leži…
So: feminine, singular, nominative (subject).
The base (dictionary) form is tepih – carpet, rug.
In na tepihu, the word changes to tepihu because of case:
- The preposition na (on) can take either locative or accusative case.
- When it means location (where something is), it uses the locative case.
- The locative singular of tepih is tepihu.
So:
- na tepihu = on the carpet (where? → locative)
- tepihu is locative singular of tepih.
The -u ending here marks the locative case.
na can take two cases, with a clear meaning difference:
na
- locative → location, position (where something is)
- Mačka leži na tepihu. – The cat is lying on the carpet. (Where is the cat? On the carpet.)
- Knjiga je na stolu. – The book is on the table.
na
- accusative → motion to / onto (where something is going)
- Mačka skače na tepih. – The cat is jumping onto the carpet.
- Stavljam knjigu na stol. – I’m putting the book onto the table.
So:
- Where? → na
- locative (na tepihu)
- To where / onto what? → na
- accusative (na tepih)
Croatian does not have a separate present continuous tense like English.
- leži is just present tense, 3rd person singular of ležati (to lie, to be lying).
- It can translate as either:
- “lies”
- “is lying”
The choice in English depends on context and style, not on a different Croatian form:
- Mačka leži na tepihu.
- The cat lies on the carpet.
- The cat is lying on the carpet.
Both are valid translations of the same Croatian sentence.
The infinitive is ležati – to lie, to be lying.
Present tense conjugation:
- ja ležim – I lie / I am lying
- ti ležiš – you lie / you are lying (singular, informal)
- on / ona / ono leži – he / she / it lies, is lying
- mi ležimo – we lie / we are lying
- vi ležite – you lie / you are lying (plural or formal)
- oni / one / ona leže – they lie / they are lying
In the sentence:
- Mačka leži na tepihu.
- mačka → ona (she/it), so the form is leži (3rd person singular).
Yes, you can change the word order; Croatian word order is more flexible than English.
- Mačka leži na tepihu. – neutral, standard order: subject–verb–place.
- Na tepihu leži mačka. – still correct, but it emphasizes the place (on the carpet) first. It can sound like “On the carpet, a cat is lying.”
The basic meaning (a cat is lying on the carpet) is the same, but:
- Putting na tepihu first focuses on where.
- Putting mačka first focuses on who/what is lying.
Both are grammatically correct.
In mačka the letter with the accent is č.
- č is pronounced like “ch” in “church” or “ch” in “chunk” – a strong, “hard” ch sound.
- c (without a mark) is pronounced like “ts” in “cats”.
- ć is a softer sound, something like a very soft “ch”, close to the “t”
- “y” in “tune” in some accents, but shorter and softer than č.
So:
- mačka – roughly “mach-ka”, with a strong “ch”
- You should never ignore the little marks (č, ć, š, ž, đ); they change the sound and can change the word’s meaning.
You need the plural of mačka and the plural of the verb ležati:
- Singular: Mačka leži na tepihu. – The cat is lying on the carpet.
- Plural: Mačke leže na tepihu. – Cats are lying on the carpet.
Changes:
- mačka → mačke (nominative plural, subject)
- leži → leže (3rd person plural present)
na tepihu stays the same, because the carpet is still one carpet (locative singular).
To negate a present tense verb in Croatian, you usually put ne directly in front of the verb:
- Mačka ne leži na tepihu. – The cat is not lying on the carpet / The cat does not lie on the carpet.
Structure:
- mačka – subject
- ne leži – negative verb phrase (does not lie / is not lying)
- na tepihu – place (on the carpet)
So you just add ne: leži → ne leži.
ležati – to lie, to be lying (in a horizontal position)
- Focuses on body position, not necessarily sleeping.
- Mačka leži na tepihu. – The cat is lying on the carpet (maybe awake, maybe not).
spavati – to sleep
- Focuses on the state of sleeping, not on position.
- Mačka spava na tepihu. – The cat is sleeping on the carpet.
You can even combine them:
- Mačka leži i spava na tepihu. – The cat is lying and sleeping on the carpet.