Novine su na stolu.

The newspapers are on the table.

Breakdown of Novine su na stolu.

• biti: to be
• stol: table
• novine: newspaper
• na: into

Questions & Answers about Novine su na stolu.

Why is novine plural if it means newspaper, which is singular in English?

In Croatian, novine is what’s called a plural-only noun (pluralia tantum).

• Novine literally looks like a plural (ending in -e), but its normal meaning is “newspaper” in general (a newspaper, the newspaper, newspapers – depending on context).
• Croatian doesn’t have to show the difference between “a newspaper” and “newspapers” the same way English does; novine covers both, and context clarifies.

So even if there is just one physical newspaper on the table, the natural Croatian sentence is still Novine su na stolu.

What gender is novine, and how does that affect the rest of the sentence?

Novine is grammatically feminine plural.

That means:

• You use feminine plural agreement for adjectives and past participles:
  
  • Dobre novine su na stolu. – The good newspaper(s) are on the table.
• The verb biti (“to be”) agrees in plural:
  
  • Novine su na stolu. (not je)

So you treat novine as “they (feminine plural)”, even though in English you’d probably say “it (the newspaper)”.

Why is the verb su and not je?

Su is the 3rd person plural of the verb biti (“to be”) in the present tense:

• ja sam
• ti si
• on/ona/ono je
• mi smo
• vi ste
• oni/one/ona su

Because novine is grammatically plural, you must use su:

• Novine su na stolu. – The newspaper(s) are on the table.

Using Novine je na stolu would sound ungrammatical to native speakers.

Can I say jesu instead of su?

Yes, but jesu is used mainly for emphasis, often in answers or contrasts. In a neutral statement, you just use su:

• Neutral: Novine su na stolu.
• Emphatic / corrective:
  
  • Novine jesu na stolu, ali ih ne vidiš.
    – The newspapers really are on the table, but you don’t see them.

So in your basic sentence, su is the normal, unmarked choice.

Why is it na stolu and not na stol?

This is about case and the meaning of na.

• Stol is “table” in the nominative (dictionary form).
• After na, Croatian uses two different cases depending on meaning:
  
  • na
    • locative = location (where something is)
  • na
    • accusative = direction / movement (onto something)

In Novine su na stolu, there is no movement, just location, so na takes the locative:

• stol (nominative) → stolu (locative)
• Novine su na stolu. – The newspapers are on the table.

If you talk about putting the newspapers onto the table (movement), you use the accusative:

• Stavio sam novine na stol. – I put the newspapers on (onto) the table.

What case is stolu, and how does stol decline?

Stolu is the locative singular of stol (table).

A simplified singular declension of stol:

• Nominative (who/what?): stol
• Genitive (of what?): stola
• Dative (to/for what?): stolu
• Accusative (whom/what?): stol
• Locative (about/on what?): (na/o) stolu
• Instrumental (with what?): stolom

In Novine su na stolu, na + stolu = preposition + locative expressing place: on the table.

Does Croatian distinguish between “the newspapers” and “some newspapers” here?

No, Croatian does not have articles (the, a, an) like English.

• Novine su na stolu. can mean:
  
  • The newspapers are on the table.
  • A newspaper is on the table.
  • Some newspapers are on the table.

The context (what you’ve been talking about) tells the listener whether you mean “the” or “some” or “a”. The Croatian sentence itself just states “newspaper(s) are on the table.”

Can I change the word order to Na stolu su novine?

Yes, that’s perfectly correct.

• Novine su na stolu. – neutral word order; starts with the subject (novine).
• Na stolu su novine. – still correct, but now “on the table” is emphasized or made into the topic, as in:
  
  • On the table, there are newspapers (as opposed to somewhere else).

Both are grammatical. Croatian word order is fairly flexible, and changes in order usually affect emphasis, not basic grammar.

What if there is only one newspaper on the table? Should I use singular novina?

You still normally say Novine su na stolu, even for only one physical newspaper.

The singular novina exists, but its common meaning is “novelty / something new”, not a single newspaper copy in everyday speech. Using novina for “one newspaper” is unusual and would sound odd outside of some special or very formal contexts.

So in practice:

• 1 newspaper on the table → Novine su na stolu.
• Many newspapers on the table → also Novine su na stolu.

How do I pronounce Novine su na stolu?

Roughly, in English-friendly terms:

• Novine – NOH-vee-neh (stress on the first syllable NO; all vowels clear and short)
• su – like soo
• na – like nah (short a, as in father)
• stolu – STO-lu:
  
  • sto like stow (but with a pure o),
  • lu like loo, again with a pure short u.

Main stress: NÓ-vine su na STÓ-lu (primary stress on NO; in slow, careful speech STO is also clearly stressed).