Questions & Answers about Pazi da ne prospeš juhu na stolnjak.
What does pazi mean here?
Pazi is the 2nd person singular imperative of paziti.
In this sentence, it means something like:
- Be careful
- Watch out
- Take care
So Pazi da ne... is a very common Croatian pattern meaning Be careful not to...
Why does Croatian use da ne prospeš instead of an infinitive like English not to spill?
Croatian often uses da + present-tense verb where English uses an infinitive.
So:
- Pazi da ne prospeš juhu
literally: Be careful that you do not spill the soup - natural English: Be careful not to spill the soup
This is completely normal Croatian structure. After verbs like paziti, gledati, htjeti, trebati (in some uses), Croatian very often prefers a da-clause instead of an infinitive.
What exactly is prospeš?