Breakdown of Što god vidi u galeriji, moja kći poslije pokušava crtati kod kuće.
Questions & Answers about Što god vidi u galeriji, moja kći poslije pokušava crtati kod kuće.
Što god means whatever or anything that in this sentence.
So:
- što = what
- god adds the idea of no matter what / whatever
Together, što god vidi means whatever she sees.
A few similar patterns:
- tko god = whoever
- gdje god = wherever
- kad god = whenever
In this sentence, što god vidi u galeriji means whatever she sees in the gallery.
The comma separates the subordinate clause from the main clause.
- Što god vidi u galeriji = subordinate clause
- moja kći poslije pokušava crtati kod kuće = main clause
Croatian usually writes this kind of introductory clause with a comma, just as English often does:
- Whatever she sees in the gallery, my daughter later tries to draw at home.
So the comma is normal and expected here.
Croatian often uses the present tense for habitual or repeated actions, just like English can use the simple present.
So vidi here does not mean only is seeing right now. It can mean:
- whenever she sees
- anything she happens to see
- what she sees in general
This sentence describes a regular pattern:
- she goes to the gallery
- she sees something
- later she tries to draw it at home
So the present tense is completely natural.
Both are possible, but moja kći means my daughter, so the possessive adjective moja is simply included because the speaker wants to identify whose daughter it is.
Formally:
- moja = my (feminine singular nominative)
- kći = daughter
Because kći is feminine singular and is the subject of the main clause, moja must match it in gender, number, and case.
Croatian word order is much freer than English word order.
English strongly prefers:
- My daughter later tries to draw at home whatever she sees in the gallery. or
- Whatever she sees in the gallery, my daughter later tries to draw at home.
Croatian can very naturally begin with the subordinate clause:
- Što god vidi u galeriji, moja kći...
This gives the sentence a nice topic-first structure: first the condition/content (whatever she sees in the gallery), then the main statement about your daughter.
So this order is normal and stylistically natural.
Poslije means afterwards, later, or after that.
In this sentence:
- moja kći poslije pokušava crtati kod kuće = my daughter later tries to draw at home
Yes, kasnije is also possible in many contexts. The difference is usually small:
- poslije = after something, afterwards
- kasnije = later, at a later time
Here both could work, but poslije fits well because the sequence is clear:
- she sees something in the gallery
- afterwards she tries to draw it at home
After pokušavati / pokušati (to try), Croatian normally uses an infinitive.
So:
- pokušava crtati = she tries to draw
There is no reflexive pronoun se here because crtati is not reflexive in this meaning.
The pattern is:
- pokušavati + infinitive = to be trying / to try repeatedly
- pokušati + infinitive = to try / make an attempt
Examples:
- Pokušavam učiti. = I’m trying to study.
- Pokušala je otvoriti vrata. = She tried to open the door.
So pokušava crtati is exactly the normal structure.
Yes, this is a very useful aspect question.
- crtati = imperfective, to draw, focusing on the activity/process
- nacrtati = perfective, to draw/finish drawing, focusing on completion
In this sentence, pokušava crtati sounds natural because it emphasizes the activity of trying to draw what she saw.
If you said pokušava nacrtati, the focus would shift a bit more toward successfully producing a finished drawing:
- pokušava crtati = she tries to draw, engages in drawing
- pokušava nacrtati = she tries to draw it completely / make a completed drawing
Both can be possible depending on what nuance you want, but crtati is very natural in a general habitual sentence like this.
After u meaning in, Croatian uses the locative case when talking about location.
So:
- u galeriji = in the gallery
Here the noun galerija changes to locative singular:
- nominative: galerija
- locative: galeriji
This is because the sentence describes where she sees things, not motion toward somewhere.
Compare:
- u galeriji = in the gallery (location, locative)
- u galeriju = into the gallery (movement, accusative)
Kod kuće is the normal idiomatic way to say at home in Croatian.
So:
- kod kuće = at home
Literally, kod often means something like at the place of or by, and kuće is genitive singular.
By contrast:
- u kući means in the house
That is more physical and literal. It refers to being inside the building.
So in this sentence:
- crtati kod kuće = draw at home
This is the natural expression. Using u kući would sound more like you are emphasizing the physical location inside the house.
It is genitive singular.
The preposition kod requires the genitive case.
So:
- dictionary form: kuća = house/home
- after kod: kuće
That is why you get:
- kod kuće = at home
Other examples of kod + genitive:
- kod prijatelja = at a friend’s place
- kod liječnika = at the doctor’s
Yes, both kći and kćer are connected forms of the same word.
Learners often notice this because the word is a bit irregular.
In practice:
- kći is a standard nominative form
- kćer also appears in the declension and in some usage patterns
You may see forms such as:
- kći
- kćeri
- kćer
For a learner, the important point in this sentence is simply:
- moja kći = my daughter
It is a normal and correct form, even if the word’s declension is less regular than many other nouns.
Not directly in this sentence.
- što god vidi = whatever she sees
- bilo što usually means anything
The difference is that što god introduces a clause:
- što god vidi = whatever she sees
But bilo što is usually a pronoun or noun-like expression:
- Vidi bilo što. = She sees anything.
- Može crtati bilo što. = She can draw anything.
So in this sentence, što god is the natural choice because it connects with the verb vidi and means anything that she sees / whatever she sees.