Indirect and Rhetorical Questions | Croatian Grammar

A question doesn't always stand on its own. We embed questions inside other sentences — „I wonder whether he'll come," „Tell me where you were" — and we ask questions we don't expect answered — „Isn't that obvious?" These are indirect (embedded) and rhetorical questions, and Croatian handles them with two devices an English speaker has to learn deliberately. Indirect yes/no questions keep the particle li (or colloquial da li) inside the embedded clause; indirect wh-questions keep their question word. And — the single most important point on this page — Croatian has no tense backshift: the tense in the embedded question is the tense of the original thought, not adjusted backward as English does („He said he was coming" → Croatian keeps the present).

Indirect yes/no questions: keep li in the embedded clause

When a yes/no question is tucked inside a bigger sentence („Do I know whether it's finished?"), Croatian does not drop the question machinery — it keeps li (or da li) right where the embedded verb is. English uses „whether" or „if"; Croatian uses the same li it uses for direct questions, just inside the subordinate clause.

Pitam se hoće li doći.

I wonder whether he'll come. — embedded yes/no question keeps 'li' after the auxiliary 'hoće'.

Ne znam je li gotovo.

I don't know whether it's finished. — 'je li' inside the embedded clause.

Reci mi voliš li me.

Tell me whether you love me. — embedded yes/no question with 'li' on the verb 'voliš'.

The colloquial da li also works in embedded clauses, exactly as it does in direct questions, though standard Croatian still prefers the li form. So Ne znam da li je gotovo is widely heard, but Ne znam je li gotovo is the careful written version.

Nije sigurna da li dolazimo.

She's not sure whether we're coming. — colloquial 'da li' embedded. (informal)

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For „whether / if" in an embedded yes/no question, do not reach for ako — that's the conditional „if" (ako padne kiša, „if it rains"). Embedded „whether" is the question particle li (or da li): „I don't know whether he's home" → Ne znam je li doma, never Ne znam ako je doma.

Indirect wh-questions: keep the question word

An embedded content question keeps its question word — tko, što, gdje, kada, zašto, kako — exactly as in the direct version. The question word introduces the subordinate clause and the verb follows. There is no „that," no extra connector: the question word does the connecting itself.

Reci mi gdje si bio.

Tell me where you were. — embedded wh-question keeps 'gdje'.

Ne znam tko je to.

I don't know who that is. — embedded 'tko'; word order is statement-like.

Pitala je zašto kasnimo.

She asked why we were late. — embedded 'zašto', verb following.

Nije mi jasno kako su to izveli.

It's not clear to me how they pulled it off. — embedded 'kako'.

Notice that the word order inside the embedded clause is the ordinary statement order — the question word leads, then subject and verb fall into place. There is no inversion to undo, because Croatian didn't invert in the first place. Compare this with English, where you must „straighten out" the embedded question („Where were you" → „where you were"). Croatian has no such adjustment to make: the direct and indirect forms look almost identical.

No tense backshift — the crucial difference

This is where English habits actively mislead. English shifts the tense backward when the reporting verb is past: „He said he is coming" becomes „He said he was coming." Croatian does none of this. The embedded clause keeps the tense of the original utterance or thought — if the person actually said „I am coming" (present), the report uses the present, even after a past reporting verb.

Rekao je da dolazi.

He said he was coming. — Croatian keeps the present 'dolazi'; English backshifts to 'was coming'.

Mislila sam da spavaš.

I thought you were sleeping. — present 'spavaš' retained, even after past 'mislila sam'.

Nije znao hoće li stići na vrijeme.

He didn't know whether he'd make it in time. — embedded future 'hoće… stići' kept; no shift to a 'would' form.

The logic is consistent: Croatian reports the tense as it was experienced, not relative to the reporting moment. „He said he is coming" (Rekao je da dolazi) tells you the coming is still pending from the speaker's point of view at the time of speaking. To express what English's „he said he had come" conveys (an action already over before the report), Croatian simply uses a past tense in the embedded clause: Rekao je da je došao („He said he had come / he came"). There is no separate „backshifted" machinery — you just pick the tense that matches the real timeline.

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When reporting speech or thought, keep the original tense. „She said she will call" stays Rekla je da će nazvati (future kept), not a „would"-style past. The reporting verb being past does not pull the embedded verb back a tense the way English does.

Rhetorical questions: zar and tko zna

A rhetorical question expects no answer — it makes a point. Croatian's main rhetorical signal is the particle zar, which colours a question with surprise, indignation, or „surely you agree." Zar turns a plain question into an emphatic one: „Isn't it obvious?" / „You're not seriously going?"

Zar to nije očito?

Isn't that obvious? — 'zar' makes it rhetorical: the speaker assumes it is obvious.

Zar već odlaziš?

You're leaving already? — 'zar' marks surprise/disbelief, not a genuine request for information.

Zar misliš da sam glup?

Do you think I'm stupid? — indignant rhetorical question with 'zar'.

zar is especially common in front of a negation (zar ne, zar nije, zar nisi), where it leans the listener toward agreement — „surely yes." This is also the source of the tag zar ne? („right? / isn't it?"), covered on the tag questions page. The full range of zar's emphatic uses is on the emphatic and modal particles page.

The fixed phrase Tko zna? („Who knows?") is a rhetorical question frozen into an idiom meaning „nobody knows / who can say." Likewise Što ja znam („What do I know / search me") shrugs off a question rather than answering it.

Hoće li ikad priznati? Tko zna.

Will he ever admit it? Who knows. — 'Tko zna' as a frozen rhetorical shrug.

Kako da znam? Pa nisam bila tamo.

How would I know? I wasn't even there. — rhetorical 'kako da znam' rejecting the question.

Common Mistakes

❌ Ne znam ako dolazi.

Incorrect — embedded 'whether' is 'li/da li', not 'ako' (which is conditional 'if'): 'Ne znam dolazi li'.

✅ Ne znam dolazi li.

I don't know whether he's coming. — embedded yes/no question with 'li'.

❌ Rekao je da je dolazio. (meaning 'he said he was coming')

Incorrect — no backshift: if he said 'I'm coming', keep the present: 'Rekao je da dolazi'.

✅ Rekao je da dolazi.

He said he was coming. — present retained, no English-style backshift.

❌ Reci mi gdje si bio? (with question mark)

Incorrect — an embedded question is part of a statement; no question mark: 'Reci mi gdje si bio.'

✅ Reci mi gdje si bio.

Tell me where you were. — embedded wh-question, full stop, not a question mark.

❌ Pitam se da on dolazi.

Incorrect — an embedded yes/no question needs 'li', not bare 'da': 'Pitam se dolazi li on'.

✅ Pitam se dolazi li on.

I wonder whether he's coming. — 'li' carries the embedded question.

Key Takeaways

Embedded yes/no questions keep li (or colloquial da li) inside the subordinate clause: Ne znam je li gotovo, Pitam se hoće li doći. „Whether" is li, never ako.
Embedded wh-questions keep their question word and use plain statement order: Reci mi gdje si bio, Ne znam tko je to.
No tense backshift. Croatian keeps the original tense after a past reporting verb: Rekao je da dolazi („He said he was coming," with the present retained).
An embedded question inside a statement takes a full stop, not a question mark.
Rhetorical questions use zar (surprise/indignation: Zar to nije očito?) and frozen phrases like Tko zna? („Who knows?").

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