Questions & Answers about Tava je stara, ali još dobra.
Why is it stara and dobra, not star and dobar?
In Croatian, adjectives must agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
- tava is a feminine, singular noun in the nominative case.
- The adjectives describing it therefore must be in feminine singular nominative form:
- star → stara (feminine singular nominative)
- dobar → dobra (feminine singular nominative)
If the noun were masculine, you would see:
- Lonac je star, ali još dobar. – The pot is old but still good.
(lonac is masculine, so star, dobar are masculine forms.)
What exactly does još mean here? Is it like still in English?
Yes. In this sentence, još means still in the sense of “despite being old, it continues to be good.”
Common meanings of još:
- still (continuing state):
- Tava je stara, ali je još dobra. – The pan is old, but it’s still good.
- more / another / in addition:
- Želiš li još kave? – Do you want more coffee?
Context normally makes it clear which meaning is intended. Here, because we’re contrasting old with , clearly means .