Korijen tog starog stabla ide ispod staze, pa ćemo morati paziti.

The root of that old tree goes under the path, so we will have to be careful.

Breakdown of Korijen tog starog stabla ide ispod staze, pa ćemo morati paziti.

• ići: to go
• star: old
• morati: to have to
• htjeti: will (future auxiliary)

Questions & Answers about Korijen tog starog stabla ide ispod staze, pa ćemo morati paziti.

Why is it tog starog stabla and not something like to staro stablo?

Because korijen is the noun being talked about, and tog starog stabla means of that old tree.

After korijen (root), Croatian uses the genitive case for the thing the root belongs to:

• korijen stabla = the root of the tree
• korijen tog starog stabla = the root of that old tree

So:

• to staro stablo = that old tree (nominative)
• tog starog stabla = of that old tree (genitive)

All three words change because they belong together:

• tog = genitive of taj
• starog = genitive of star
• stabla = genitive of stablo

What case is tog starog stabla, exactly?