Lekar pacijentu kaže da diše.

that

Breakdown of Lekar pacijentu kaže da diše.

• lekar: doctor
• reći: to tell
• pacijent: patient

Questions & Answers about Lekar pacijentu kaže da diše.

Why is pacijentu and not pacijent?

Because pacijentu is the dative singular form of pacijent.

In this sentence, the patient is the person receiving the doctor’s words, so Serbian uses the dative case:

• pacijent = patient
• pacijentu = to the patient

English uses the preposition to, but Serbian usually shows that meaning with a case ending instead.

So:

• Lekar pacijentu kaže... = The doctor tells the patient...

What case is lekar in?

Lekar is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence, the one doing the action.

Here is the basic structure:

• Lekar = subject, nominative
• pacijentu = indirect object, dative
• kaže = verb
• da diše = subordinate clause

So the sentence is literally structured like:

Doctor to-patient says that breathes

What does kaže mean here: says or tells?

It can correspond to either says or tells, depending on the structure.

In this sentence, because there is a person in the dative case, , the most natural English translation is :