Breakdown of U toj trgovini prodaju svakakve stvari.
Questions & Answers about U toj trgovini prodaju svakakve stvari.
Why is it u toj trgovini and not u ta trgovina?
Because u meaning in a place takes the locative case.
So:
- base form: ta trgovina = that store
- after u for location: u toj trgovini = in that store
Both words change:
- ta → toj
- trgovina → trgovini
Croatian adjectives and demonstratives have to agree with the noun in gender, number, and case.
A useful comparison:
- u toj trgovini = in that store → location, so locative
- u tu trgovinu = into that store → movement, so accusative
Why is u used here, not na?
Croatian usually uses u for being inside a building, room, store, town, country, and so on.
So:
- u trgovini = in the store
- u kući = in the house
- u gradu = in the city
Na is used for surfaces and also in some idiomatic place expressions:
- na stolu = on the table
- na poslu = at work
- na fakultetu = at the faculty / at university
A store is normally treated as an enclosed place, so u is the natural choice.
Who is doing the selling? Why is there no subject?
Croatian often leaves the subject unstated when it is clear from the verb form.
Prodaju is 3rd person plural, so the sentence literally has a kind of they sell structure.
But this they is often indefinite or generic, like in English:
- They sell good bread there.
- In that shop they sell all kinds of things.
It does not have to mean a specific group already mentioned. It can simply mean the people in that store, the staff, or just people there.
What form is prodaju?
Prodaju is 3rd person plural present tense.
Basic idea:
- ja prodajem / prodam = I sell
- oni prodaju = they sell
In this sentence, it means they sell.
Because Croatian verb endings already show the person and number, you do not need a separate pronoun like oni unless you want emphasis.
Is prodaju imperfective or perfective here?
In meaning, this sentence is understood as imperfective: a general, repeated, habitual action.
So here it is basically from prodavati = to sell, to be selling, to sell regularly.
That fits the context of describing what a store sells in general.
Why this can be confusing:
- prodavati and prodati can both produce the form prodaju in some contexts
- but context tells you which meaning is intended
Here, a store description like U toj trgovini prodaju svakakve stvari is naturally read as a habitual fact, so learners should understand it as imperfective.
What case is svakakve stvari?
It is the accusative plural, because it is the direct object of prodaju.
The things are what is being sold, so they go in the accusative:
- prodaju što? → svakakve stvari
For this noun phrase, the accusative plural looks the same as the nominative plural:
- nominative plural: svakakve stvari
- accusative plural: svakakve stvari
That is very common with feminine plural forms.
What exactly does svakakve mean?
Svakakve means something like:
- all kinds of
- all sorts of
- various
- all kinds of different
So:
- svakakve stvari = all sorts of things
Depending on tone and context, svakakve can sound:
- neutral: various kinds
- slightly loose or informal: this and that, all sorts of stuff
In this sentence, it most likely just means a wide variety of things.
Why is it stvari and not singular stvar?
Because the sentence is talking about many different items/things, not one thing.
- stvar = thing (singular)
- stvari = things (plural)
With svakakve, plural sounds very natural because the meaning is about variety:
- svakakve stvari = all sorts of things
A singular version would sound different and less natural here.
Can the word order be changed?
Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible.
The given sentence:
- U toj trgovini prodaju svakakve stvari.
could also be rearranged, for example:
- Prodaju svakakve stvari u toj trgovini.
- Svakakve stvari prodaju u toj trgovini.
The basic meaning stays similar, but the focus changes.
The original version starts with U toj trgovini, which puts the location first, as if saying:
- In that store, they sell all sorts of things.
So the word order is natural and probably chosen for emphasis on where this happens.
Why not say U toj trgovini prodaju se svakakve stvari?
You can say a version with se, but it feels a bit different.
Compare:
- U toj trgovini prodaju svakakve stvari.
- U toj trgovini prodaju se svakakve stvari.
The version without se focuses more on unspecified people doing the selling:
- they sell all sorts of things there
The version with se is more impersonal and closer to:
- all sorts of things are sold there
- one sells all sorts of things there
Both are possible, but the sentence you were given is very natural when Croatian uses a general they.
Does the present tense here mean sell or are selling?
In Croatian, the present tense can often cover both ideas, and context decides.
So prodaju can match English:
- they sell
- they are selling
In this sentence, because it sounds like a general description of what the store offers, the natural reading is:
- they sell
- they sell all kinds of things there
If you wanted to make it clearly about right now, Croatian would usually rely on context or add a time expression, such as sad = now.
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