Brinem o psu, a pas laje kada se izgubi.

I care for the dog, and the dog barks when it gets lost.

Breakdown of Brinem o psu, a pas laje kada se izgubi.

• pas: dog
• a: and
• kada: when
• lajati: to bark

Questions & Answers about Brinem o psu, a pas laje kada se izgubi.

Why is it o psu and not o pas?

Because the preposition o normally requires the locative case when it means about / concerning.

• basic form: pas = dog
• locative singular: psu

So:

• o psu = about the dog

This is very common in Serbian: a preposition changes the form of the noun that follows it.

Examples:

• pričam o gradu = I am talking about the city
• mislim o tebi = I am thinking about you
• brinem o psu = I care about / worry about the dog

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Why does pas change to psu? That seems irregular.

Yes, pas is a somewhat irregular noun.

Its nominative singular is:

• pas = dog

But in other cases, the stem changes:

• psa (genitive/accusative)
• psu (dative/locative)
• psom (instrumental)

So the vowel a disappears in some forms. This happens with a number of Serbian nouns.

Useful singular forms of pas:

• pas = dog
• psa
• psu
• psa
• pse
• psu
• psom