Breakdown of Sestra je sinoć nazvala brata.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
brat
brother
sestra
sister
sinoć
last night
nazvati
to call (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Sestra je sinoć nazvala brata.
Why does the verb nazvala end in -a?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb (the l-participle) must match the gender of the subject. Since the subject sestra (sister) is feminine, the verb takes the feminine ending -a to become nazvala. If the brother had called, it would be the masculine form, nazvao.
Why are there two verbs, je and nazvala, to say "called"?
Why is je separated from nazvala by the word sinoć?
The helper verb je is an enclitic, which is a short, unstressed word. A strict rule in Croatian is that enclitics almost always take the second position in a sentence. Because sestra is the first word, je must immediately follow it, pushing sinoć and nazvala further down the line.
Why is it brata instead of the dictionary form brat?
Because the brother is the direct object (the person receiving the action of being called), the noun must be in the Accusative case. For masculine nouns that represent living beings, the Accusative is formed by adding -a to the end, changing brat to brata.
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