User talk:Ivan Štambuk/3000

I changed 904 "shower, sprinkle [n]" to "[v]" to match the translation. (- N.Megill) 207.172.220.155 23:52, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

Entry 232 (hope) has a verb ending with "a". Is this an error? (N. Megill) 207.172.220.155 00:02, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, it's a noun, the verb is (obviously) nadati. --Ivan Štambuk 00:39, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

"najmanje" is given as a translation for both "at least" (seq. 65) and "least" (331). But in English, these have almost opposite meanings: the first means greater than or equal to, the second means less than or equal to any other. Is "najmanje" correct for both? Thanks, Nmegill 11:50, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, a funny case of an almost-contranym :)

najmanji is an adjective is a superlative form of mȃl / màlen. So its direct and primary (denotative) meaning would be "the smallest". Derived adverb nȃjmanjē has OTOH two primary meanings

1. at least, synonymous with bȁr, bàrem when expressing lower limits

   najmanje deset ljudi — at least ten people

2. least: "in the lowest possible quantity/size of" (adverb!)

   Od svih učenika ja sam se najmanje potrudio. — Of all the students I did the least effort.

   Najmanje što sam mogao učiniti.. — The least thing I could do..

   To mi ni najmanje ne smeta. — I couldn't care less (watch out for funky syntax!)

   Da li vam smeta moja prisutnost? Ni najmanje! — Does my presence bother you? Not at all!

In this latter sense as one can see it is chiefly used in some idiomatic constructs, often preceded by the particle ni. --Ivan Štambuk 13:30, 20 July 2009 (UTC)