Reported Yes/No Questions
In English, we report yes/no questions using "if" or "whether" (e.g., "She asks if the salon is open"). In standard Croatian, we construct these by combining a form of the verb biti (to be) with the question particle li.
The most common form for a third-person singular subject is je li.
| She asks me if the salon is open. | Pita me je li salon otvoren. |
| He wonders if the haircut is cheap. | Zanima ga je li šišanje jeftino. |
While you will often hear native speakers use da li instead of je li in casual colloquial speech, je li is the standard, grammatically correct form. You should default to je li to sound natural, especially in writing.
Matching the Subject
Because this structure relies on the verb biti, it must change if the reported question is about a different person or a plural noun. For example, use jesu li for a plural subject, or jesam li if the question is about yourself.
| I wonder if bangs are modern now. | Zanima me jesu li šiške sada moderne. |
| She asks me if I wanted to trim my hair. | Pita me jesam li htjela kratiti kosu. |
Past Tense in Reported Questions
When reporting a question about something that already happened, je li serves a double purpose: it introduces the reported question and it acts as the auxiliary verb for the past tense. You simply place the past participle of the main verb directly after it.
| I must check if she scheduled a haircut. | Moram provjeriti je li zakazala šišanje. |
| I will ask him if he scheduled an appointment. | Pitat ću ga je li zakazao termin. |