Breakdown of Iz vrećica sjemena posijte bosiljak, origano i vlasac.
i
and
iz
from
vrećica sjemena
packet of seeds
bosiljak
basil
Questions & Answers about Iz vrećica sjemena posijte bosiljak, origano i vlasac.
Why does the sentence use iz here, and what case comes after it?
Iz means from / out of, and it requires the genitive case in Croatian.
So in iz vrećica sjemena, both nouns after iz are part of a genitive phrase. This is one of the first case patterns learners usually notice:
- iz kuće = from the house
- iz škole = from school
- iz vrećica sjemena = from the seed packets
In this sentence, iz gives the idea of the source: the sowing is being done using what comes from those packets.
Why is it vrećica after iz? Shouldn’t it be vrećice?
It looks surprising, but vrećica here is actually genitive plural, not singular.
The noun vrećica means small bag / packet. Its forms include:
- nominative singular: vrećica
- genitive singular: vrećice
- nominative plural: vrećice
- genitive plural: vrećica
So after iz, Croatian needs the genitive, and here the meaning is plural: from the packets, so we get iz vrećica.
This is a very common pattern with feminine nouns ending in -ica: the genitive plural often has no extra ending.
Why is it sjemena and not ?