002 U tom grmu leži zec!

Croatian sayings and expressions #002

U tom grmu leži zec!

Aha! U tom grmu leži zec!

Literally: A rabbit is lying in the bush! or .... There is a rabbit lying in the bush!

Everyday meaning: So that is what this is all about! (At the moment when you realize ....). So that's the thing! I've got it now! Now I see it! So that's the trick! Aha!
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For example ........
Ivan has been trying to make a payment online, but it is not accepted - time and again. He contacts the bank and talks to teller Dragica.

Dragica: Ivane, your payment won't be accepted until you check the box to agree with their conditions.

Ivan: Aha! U tom grmu leži zec! ........ Evo ga! Uspjeo sam!
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Sometimes we don't see the rabbit in the bush until it pops its head up!

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An approximation to a conversation that I had with my teacher Mateja (SpeakCro) about some grammar that I had never understood in all the time that I had been learning Croatian:

Bob: Mateja, I am totally confused about when it is appropriate to use svi, sve, svima, svega, svom, ... and so on. It just seems so random!

Mateja: Well it should make sense if you realise that each of these is the appropriate declension of the adjective sav.

Bob: Sav?? I've never heard of it!

Mateja: Sav is the nominative, masculine, singular form of the adjective meaning all, total, complete, entire.

Bob: So I just use use my chart for padež of adjectives, the same as for any other adjective? Let me see ... genitive, singular, neuter form of sav is svega. So prije svega ..... 

Mateja: Exactly!

Bob: Aha! U tom grmu leži zec! 


Usput, did the three musketeers say something like 'Svi za jednog, jedan za sve'?

And as for that chart showing the cases for the adjective sav, click to find it in another post Sav - all, every.

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