Breakdown of Na tavanu naše kuće držimo stare udžbenike gramatike i rječnike.
Questions & Answers about Na tavanu naše kuće držimo stare udžbenike gramatike i rječnike.
The preposition na can take either:
- Locative (answering “where?” – static location)
- Accusative (answering “where to?” – movement toward)
In na tavanu, tavanu is locative singular (masculine noun tavan – “attic”), because the sentence describes a location where something is kept:
- Na tavanu držimo… = We keep them in/on the attic (location – no movement).
If you talked about movement to the attic, you would use the accusative:
- Idemo na tavan. – We are going to the attic. (movement toward a place)
Naše kuće is genitive singular:
- naše – possessive adjective “our”, genitive singular feminine
- kuće – genitive singular of kuća (“house”)
Genitive is used here to express possession:
- na tavanu naše kuće = “in the attic of our house”.
In Croatian, possession is very often expressed by [noun in genitive] after another noun:
- tavan naše kuće – the attic of our house
- vrata sobe – the door of the room
- knjiga prijatelja – a friend’s book / the book of a friend
Because naša kuća would be nominative singular (“our house” as the subject), but here “our house” is not the subject.
We have the phrase:
- na tavanu naše kuće – “in the attic of our house”
Here, kuće depends on tavanu: it tells us whose attic. That relationship is expressed with genitive, so:
- nominative: naša kuća (Our house is big.) – Naša kuća je velika.
- genitive: naše kuće (the attic of our house) – tavan naše kuće
Both udžbenike and rječnike are accusative plural masculine nouns:
- udžbenik → udžbenike
- rječnik → rječnike
They are in the accusative because they are the direct objects of the verb držimo (“we keep”):
- Držimo što? – udžbenike i rječnike.
So the structure is:
- (Mi) držimo stare udžbenike gramatike i rječnike.
Subject (implied) + verb + direct object in accusative.
Gramatike is genitive singular of gramatika (“grammar”).
The structure udžbenike gramatike literally means:
- “textbooks of grammar”
Croatian often uses noun + noun in genitive to express “X of Y”:
- udžbenici gramatike – textbooks of grammar
- udžbenici biologije – textbooks of biology
- učenik matematike – a student of mathematics
You could also say gramatičke udžbenike (“grammatical textbooks” / “grammar textbooks”), using an adjective instead of a genitive noun. That shifts the nuance slightly:
- udžbenike gramatike – textbooks specifically of the subject “grammar”.
- gramatičke udžbenike – more like “grammar-related textbooks” (could be context-dependent).
In practice, udžbenike gramatike is the most natural for school subject textbooks.
Držimo is 1st person plural of držati, here meaning “to keep / to store”:
- Na tavanu naše kuće držimo… – We keep / store … in the attic.
Nuances:
- držati – to keep something somewhere, usually neutral:
- Držimo knjige na polici. – We keep books on the shelf.
- imati – “to have”, expresses possession, not where you keep it:
- Imamo stare udžbenike. – We have old textbooks.
- čuvati – “to keep / to look after / to preserve”, with a sense of protecting or caring:
- Čuvamo stare udžbenike. – We keep/preserve old textbooks (because they’re important).
In the attic sentence, držimo nicely emphasizes where we keep the books.
Stare is the accusative plural form of the adjective star (“old”) for masculine inanimate nouns.
It agrees with the nouns udžbenike and rječnike in:
- gender – masculine (inanimate)
- number – plural
- case – accusative
So:
- nominative plural: stari udžbenici, stari rječnici
- accusative plural: stare udžbenike, stare rječnike
In the sentence:
- držimo stare udžbenike gramatike i rječnike
– stare modifies both udžbenike and rječnike.
Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible. Your variant:
- Stare udžbenike gramatike i rječnike držimo na tavanu naše kuće.
is grammatically correct and natural. The main differences are in emphasis and information flow:
- Original: Na tavanu naše kuće držimo…
- Starts with location, highlighting where.
- Variant: Stare udžbenike… držimo na tavanu naše kuće.
- Starts with what we keep, then adds where.
Both are fine; choice depends on what you want to emphasize first.
In standard usage:
- tavan = attic / loft (space at the top of a house)
- The natural preposition is na: na tavanu = “in the attic”.
U tavanu is not idiomatic. Speakers would instead say:
- u potkrovlju – in the attic/loft space
- u kući – in the house
- na tavanu – (up) in the attic
So:
- Na tavanu naše kuće držimo… – We keep them in the attic of our house.
Both are regular masculine nouns.
udžbenik (textbook):
- N sg: udžbenik
- G sg: udžbenika
- D/L sg: udžbeniku
- A sg: udžbenik
I sg: udžbenikom
- N pl: udžbenici
- G pl: udžbenika
- D/L pl: udžbenicima
- A pl: udžbenike
- I pl: udžbenicima
rječnik (dictionary):
- N sg: rječnik
- G sg: rječnika
- D/L sg: rječniku
- A sg: rječnik
I sg: rječnikom
- N pl: rječnici
- G pl: rječnika
- D/L pl: rječnicima
- A pl: rječnike
- I pl: rječnicima
In the sentence, we use accusative plural: udžbenike, rječnike.
Rječnik is derived from riječ (“word”) + the suffix -nik (often meaning a person or a thing related to something).
There is a small stem change:
- riječ → rječ-
- -nik = rječnik
So literally, rječnik is something like a “word-book” – a dictionary.
Other similar formations:
- rad (work) → radnik (worker)
- škola (school) → školnik (obsolete/rare, but same pattern)
- vrt (garden) → vrtlar (gardener – different suffix, same idea)
Yes, but there is a small nuance:
- na tavanu naše kuće – “in the attic of our house”, slightly more colloquial, focusing on the space as a part of the house where you store things.
- u potkrovlju naše kuće – “in the loft / in the attic space of our house”, sometimes sounds a bit more architectural or neutral.
Both are correct; na tavanu is extremely common in everyday speech for “in the attic”.