9 | 1 | Lekcija 4: Izgled i osobine

| Question KAKAV for physical description

When we want to get more information about how someone looks, and to be specific on what we are trying to ask, we need to use the question kakav in the Accusative form.

Since we are trying to find out more information about someone’s hair/nose/glasses, we use the Accusative feminine form of kakav in the appropriate gender and singular/plural form of the noun in the Accusative case as well.

To understand this rule better, we should look at the answer first and its structure:

You already know that with the verb imati we usually use the Accusative case (since we are expressing a direct object). Thus, the question kakav itself should have the same structure, even though the verb imati comes at the end. Kakav has to agree in gender and singular/plural form of the noun in the Accusative case.

| Irregular nouns

Nouns oko, uho, and rame are irregular in their plural form. At this point, take them as they are.

Here are a few examples on how to use them in a sentence.

*Note: Check the Vocabulary section to learn more about relevant nouns when describing people and what adjectives to use.

| Verb RODITI SE

The verb roditi se is a reflexive verb. It means to be born. Usually, when expressing when someone was born, we use the regular past tense in the appropriate gender form.

* Rarely do we use personal pronouns for neuter gender. It's more common to use a noun. For example: Dijete se rodilo 12.4.

* Be careful, if you omit the pronoun – the word order changes. For example, Rodio sam se 18.11.

Together with the verb roditi se, it is also very common to use the following phrases:

Rođen behaves as an adjective, it will have singular and plural form, and all three genders. It is followed by an unstressed form of the verb biti (rođen sam). Have in mind that the form of rođen depends on the gender of the person you are talking about. That also means that you need the adequate form of the verb biti. For example if you are talking about your sister – you need the form rođena (feminine singular) the je (unstressed form of the verb biti for 3rd person singular feminine – she).

| Date of Birth

Before reading/studying this section, be sure to go over the dates and months that we covered in Unit five. Check this document to refresh your knowledge. As a review for dates (day.month), see the following three examples.

| What about years? How do we say a specific year?

Let’s take one example (a random year) — 1965. The concept of saying a year is not like in English. You cannot say “nineteen sixty five”. You have to say “a thousand nine hundred sixty fifth (year)”.

Remember

Since a date expresses the notion “of the [6th] day, of the [3rd] month, of the [one thousand nine hundred and sixty fifth] year” – the year will have very specific case endings. Look at the following examples.

Images used in this document are from these sources.