Ružmarin treba sunčevu svjetlost, a metvica voli polusjenu.

to need

Breakdown of Ružmarin treba sunčevu svjetlost, a metvica voli polusjenu.

• voljeti: to like
• a: but
• ružmarin: rosemary

Questions & Answers about Ružmarin treba sunčevu svjetlost, a metvica voli polusjenu.

Why is it sunčevu svjetlost and polusjenu, not the dictionary forms sunčeva svjetlost and polusjena?

Because both trebati and voljeti take a direct object here, and that object goes in the accusative case.

• dictionary form: sunčeva svjetlost → accusative: sunčevu svjetlost
• dictionary form: polusjena → accusative: polusjenu

So:

• Ružmarin treba sunčevu svjetlost = rosemary needs sunlight
• metvica voli polusjenu = mint likes partial shade

For feminine nouns, the accusative singular often changes -a to -u, and adjectives must match that too.

What exactly does treba mean here?

Here treba means needs.

The verb is trebati. In this sentence:

• Ružmarin treba sunčevu svjetlost = rosemary needs sunlight

A very useful thing to know is that trebati can be used in more than one way in Croatian. For example, it can also mean should / need to in other structures. But in this sentence it is the simple lexical meaning to need something.

Why is there a in the middle of the sentence? Does it mean and?