Ništa ne razumijem kad govoriš prebrzo.

not

Breakdown of Ništa ne razumijem kad govoriš prebrzo.

• kad: when
• govoriti: to speak
• razumjeti: to understand

Questions & Answers about Ništa ne razumijem kad govoriš prebrzo.

Why does the sentence use both ništa and ne? Isn’t that a double negative?

Yes, from an English point of view it looks like a double negative, but in Croatian this is completely normal and required.

• ništa = nothing
• ne razumijem = I do not understand

In Croatian, words like ništa (nothing), nikad (never), nitko (no one) usually go together with a negative verb.

So:

• Ništa ne razumijem = I understand nothing / I don’t understand anything

You would not normally drop ne here.

Could I also say Ne razumijem ništa kad govoriš prebrzo?

Yes. That is also correct.

Both mean the same thing, but the word order changes the focus slightly:

• Ništa ne razumijem... puts nothing first, so it sounds a bit more emphatic.
• Ne razumijem ništa... is also very natural and may sound a little more neutral.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order, especially for emphasis.

Why is there no word for I or you in the sentence?