Yes/No Questions in the Past Tense
To ask a yes/no question in the past tense, you cannot start the sentence with the short, unstressed forms of the auxiliary verb biti (sam, si, etc.). Instead, you use their long (stressed) forms followed by the question word li.
| Pronoun | Long form of biti |
|---|
| ja (I) | jesam |
| ti (you) | jesi |
| on / ona / ono (he/she/it) | je * |
| mi (we) | jesmo |
| vi (you pl.) | jeste |
| oni / one / ona (they) | jesu |
Note: For the third-person singular, *je is used for both the short and long form.*
The basic structure is: Long form verb + li + l-participle + rest of the sentence.
Reflexive Verbs in Questions
If the verb is reflexive (like odmarati se), the reflexive pronoun se is a short clitic. Because the question word li claims the second position in the sentence, se gets pushed to the third position, placing it right before the l-participle.
Matching Gender and Number
Just like in regular statements, the l-participle in your question must always match the gender and number of the subject. Pay close attention to the endings, especially when asking about "her" or "them".
Common Responses
When replying to past tense questions, you will often use conversational adverbs to confirm or deny the event. Words like naravno (of course) and nažalost (unfortunately) are great ways to add natural flavor to your answers.
