Word
Ako nemaš veliki ribež, možeš naribati mrkvu na onom malom.
Meaning
If you do not have the big grater, you can grate the carrot on the small one.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Ako nemaš veliki ribež, možeš naribati mrkvu na onom malom.
velik
big
imati
to have
mali
small
ne
not
Questions & Answers about Ako nemaš veliki ribež, možeš naribati mrkvu na onom malom.
Why is it nemaš and not ne imaš?
In Croatian, the negative form of imati (to have) is usually written as one word:
- imam = I have
- nemam = I don’t have
- imaš = you have
- nemaš = you don’t have
So:
- Ako nemaš veliki ribež... = If you don’t have a big grater...
This is just the normal way Croatian forms the negative of imati in everyday use.
What does Ako do here?
Ako means if.
It introduces a condition:
- Ako nemaš veliki ribež, možeš...
= If you don’t have a big grater, you can...
This is a very common pattern in Croatian:
- Ako + present tense, present tense / future / modal
- Ako imaš vremena, dođi. = If you have time, come.
- Ako ne znaš, pitaj. = If you don’t know, ask.
So the whole sentence is structured just like an English if sentence.
Why is it veliki ribež? What case is that?