Word
Moju prijateljicu danas boli glava.
Meaning
My female friend has a headache today.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Moju prijateljicu danas boli glava.
prijateljica
female friend
moj
my
danas
today
boleti
to hurt
Questions & Answers about Moju prijateljicu danas boli glava.
Why is moju prijateljicu in the accusative?
Because in this Serbian pattern with boleti (to hurt), the person who feels the pain is put in the accusative, not the nominative.
So here:
- moja prijateljica = nominative, the basic dictionary form
- moju prijateljicu = accusative, the person affected by the pain
Serbian is structuring this more like The head hurts my friend than My friend has a headache.
Why is glava in the nominative?
Because glava is the grammatical subject of the sentence: it is the thing that hurts.
So the structure is:
- moju prijateljicu = the person experiencing pain
- glava = the thing that hurts
That is why glava stays in the nominative.
Why is the verb boli singular?
The verb agrees with glava, not with moju prijateljicu.
Since glava is singular, the verb is singular too: boli.
Compare:
- Moju prijateljicu boli glava. = glava is singular
- Moju prijateljicu bole oči. = oči is plural, so the verb becomes bole
What is the literal structure of the sentence?