Breakdown of Za državljanstvo traže još jedan dokument, ali ja ga danas nemam sa sobom.
Questions & Answers about Za državljanstvo traže još jedan dokument, ali ja ga danas nemam sa sobom.
Za commonly means for in the sense of for the purpose of / for obtaining / for an application. It normally takes the accusative case.
So državljanstvo (a neuter noun) is in the accusative singular, and its form happens to look the same as the nominative: državljanstvo.
It literally means for citizenship, but in real usage it usually implies something like for (the process of getting/applying for) citizenship—for example, for a citizenship application or for the citizenship procedure.
Croatian often omits the subject pronoun because the verb ending already shows the person/number.
Traže = they ask for / they require. The subject is understood from context (e.g., officials, the office, the clerk, the authorities). You could add oni (they) if you really wanted emphasis, but it’s usually unnecessary.
Yes. Tražiti can mean:
- to look for / search for (e.g., Tražim ključeve. = I’m looking for the keys.)
- to ask for / request / require (e.g., Traže potvrdu. = They require a certificate.)
In this sentence, with documents and bureaucracy, the natural meaning is they require/ask for an additional document.
Both can translate as another/second, but they’re used differently:
- još jedan = one more, an additional one (adds to what you already have)
- drugi = the second/another (different one), often implying a set or contrast (the other one)
Here the idea is: they want an extra document on top of the existing ones, so još jedan dokument fits best.
They are in the accusative, because tražiti (to request/require) takes a direct object:
- traže (što?) dokument → dokument = accusative singular masculine (same form as nominative here)
ga is an accusative clitic pronoun meaning him/it, used for masculine (and often neuter) things in the accusative.
It refers back to dokument:
ali ja ga danas nemam... = but I don’t have it today...
Croatian uses these short pronouns very frequently to avoid repetition.
Short pronouns like ga follow the second-position (clitic) rule: they usually come as early as possible, after the first stressed element of the clause.
So ali | ja ga | danas nemam... is natural.
Other word orders are possible for emphasis, e.g. ali ga danas nemam (more neutral, no emphasis on ja), but ga still stays very early.
Yes, nemam already means I don’t have.
Adding ja usually adds contrast or emphasis, like:
- ...but I don’t have it (while someone else might / unlike what you expect).
So ali ja ga danas nemam subtly stresses me.
danas = today, and it modifies nemam (I don’t have).
Croatian word order is flexible, so you could also say:
- ali ga danas nemam sa sobom
- ali danas ga nemam sa sobom
- ali danas nemam taj dokument sa sobom These shifts mostly change emphasis, not core meaning.
sa sobom literally means with oneself, and in practice it means with me (on me / carried with me). It’s the standard way to express having something with you.
s mnom means with me in the sense of accompanying me (a person being with you), not usually carried with you:
- Dokument nemam sa sobom. = I don’t have the document with me (I didn’t bring it).
- On je s mnom. = He is with me (accompanying me).
Both s and sa are correct forms of with. The choice is mostly phonetic:
- sa is commonly used before words starting with s, š, z, ž or awkward clusters, to make pronunciation easier. Since sobom starts with s, sa sobom is the natural choice. You may still see s tobom, s njim, etc., where pronunciation is easy.