On je žrtva oluje.

to be

Breakdown of On je žrtva oluje.

• on: he
• oluja: storm
• žrtva: victim

Questions & Answers about On je žrtva oluje.

Why is žrtva used for he if žrtva looks feminine?

Because žrtva is a grammatically feminine noun, but it can refer to any person, male or female.

So:

• On je žrtva oluje. = He is a victim of the storm.
• Ona je žrtva oluje. = She is a victim of the storm.

This is a common thing in Croatian: grammatical gender and real-life sex/gender do not always match.

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What case is oluje, and why isn’t it oluja?

Oluje is in the genitive singular.

The basic dictionary form is:

• oluja = storm

But after žrtva in the sense victim of something, Croatian normally uses the genitive:

• žrtva oluje = victim of the storm
• žrtva nesreće = victim of the accident
• žrtva rata = victim of war

So oluja changes to oluje because it is not the subject here; it is part of the expression žrtva + genitive.

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Why is there no word for of in žrtva oluje?