Breakdown of Slavili smo rođendan i jeli tortu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
i
and (additive)
jesti
to eat
slaviti
to celebrate
rođendan
birthday
torta
cake (layered)
Questions & Answers about Slavili smo rođendan i jeli tortu.
Where is the word for "we" in this sentence?
In Croatian, you often drop subject pronouns like mi (we) because the verbs already tell you who is doing the action. Here, the helper verb smo makes it clear that "we" did the celebrating and eating.
Why do the past tense verbs slavili and jeli end in -i?
In the past tense, the main verb changes its ending based on who did the action. The -i ending is for a plural subject that includes at least one male (or a mixed group of men and women). If "we" meant a group of only women, the verbs would end in -e (slavile and jele).
Why doesn't the second verb have its own helper verb, like jeli smo?
When you have two past tense verbs connected by i (and) for the exact same subject, you don't need to repeat the helper verb. The smo applies to both slavili (celebrated) and jeli (ate).
Why is the word for cake tortu instead of torta?
Because the cake is the direct object receiving the action of being eaten, it must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a like torta, the ending changes to -u in this case.
Why didn't rođendan (birthday) change its ending like tortu did?
rođendan is also a direct object, but it is a masculine "inanimate" noun (a non-living thing). In Croatian, masculine inanimate nouns look exactly the same in the accusative case as they do in their basic dictionary form.
Learn Slavili smo rođendan i jeli tortu and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free