Questions & Answers about Bez vode biljka može brzo uvenuti.
What does bez vode mean literally, and why is vode not in the basic dictionary form voda?
Bez vode literally means without water.
The reason you see vode instead of voda is that the preposition bez requires the genitive case in Croatian. So:
- voda = water (basic form, nominative)
- bez vode = without water (genitive)
This is a very common pattern:
- bez šećera = without sugar
- bez problema = without a problem / without problems
- bez pomoći = without help
So a learner should remember bez + genitive.
Why is biljka in the nominative case?
Biljka is the subject of the sentence, so it appears in the nominative.
In Bez vode biljka može brzo uvenuti, the plant is the thing that can wilt, so:
- biljka = the plant
Croatian often leaves subjects in the nominative unless another structure changes them. Here the sentence is straightforward:
- Bez vode = without water
- biljka = the plant
- može = can
- brzo = quickly
- uvenuti = wilt