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Questions & Answers about Zašto pitaš djeda?
Why is it djeda instead of just djed?
Djed (grandfather) is the direct object of the verb—the person being asked—so it needs to be in the accusative case. Because a grandfather is a living being (masculine animate), we add the ending -a to the noun, making it djeda.
Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?
It is built right into the verb! The -š ending on pitaš tells us it means 'you are asking'. In Croatian, subject pronouns like ti (you) are usually dropped because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.
Because djed gets an -a ending here, do all masculine objects get this ending?
No, only living ones! The -a ending in the accusative case is only for living masculine nouns (animate). If the object was a non-living masculine noun, its accusative form would stay exactly the same as its dictionary form without adding an -a.
Why is pitaš translated as 'are you asking' instead of 'do you ask'?
Croatian only has one present tense. The single word pitaš can translate to 'you ask', 'you are asking', or 'do you ask' in English. We just pick the one that sounds the most natural in English for the situation!