Questions & Answers about Jučer je radio.
How do we know the sentence means 'he worked' if there is no word for 'he'?
In Croatian, you usually drop subject pronouns like on (he) or ona (she) because the verb tells you who did the action. We know this is a male subject because the past tense word radio has the masculine singular ending. If it were a woman working, it would be radila.
Doesn't je mean 'is'? Why does the translation use the past tense?
Yes, je is the word for 'is'. However, Croatian forms the past tense by combining a helper verb with the main verb. The helper is always a short form of the verb to be. So, the past tense literally translates to 'is worked' (je radio), which means 'he worked' or 'he has worked' in English.
If this lesson is about the l-participle, why does radio end in -o instead of -l?
That is a great catch! To make the masculine singular past tense, you take the base of the verb and add an -l ending. But in Croatian, an -l at the very end of a word almost always transforms into an -o to make it easier to say. So, the form started as radil but became radio.
Is the word radio related to the English word for a radio device?
No, it is just a funny coincidence! In this sentence, radio is simply the masculine past tense of the verb raditi (to work or to do). The device you listen to music on is also called radio in Croatian, but context tells us this one is a verb.
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