Possessive čiji

Whose in Questions and Clauses

Level 2

Use čiji, čija or čije according to the noun: Čija je ovo knjiga? asks whose book this is. Čiji also introduces possessive relative clauses.

How It Works

Compare Čiji je ovo telefon?, Čija je ovo knjiga? and Čije je ovo dijete? The unknown owner can be any gender; telefon, knjiga and dijete determine the form.

Case changes the ending: Čiju knjigu čitaš? contains a feminine accusative object. After a preposition, S čijim bratom razgovaraš? uses masculine instrumental.

The same agreement applies in a relative clause: To je čovjek čiju sam knjigu pročitala. Čiju agrees with knjigu, although its owner is čovjek. The participle pročitala identifies a female speaker in this example.

Examples (4)

  1. Čija je ovo knjiga?

    Whose book is this?

    Čija agrees with feminine nominative knjiga.

  2. Čiju knjigu čitaš?

    Whose book are you reading?

    Čiju agrees with the accusative object.

  3. S čijim bratom razgovaraš?

    Whose brother are you talking to?

    Čijim agrees with instrumental bratom.

  4. To je čovjek čiju sam knjigu pročitala.

    That is the man whose book I read.

    Čiju agrees with knjigu inside the relative clause.

How It Connects

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Possessive čijiLevel 2Whose in Questions and Clauses

Learn This First

Whose combines an ownership relation with a question or descriptive pronoun that agrees with the possessed noun.

Words in This Pattern

čiji