Breakdown of Igrači su jučer pobijedili.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
jučer
yesterday
igrač
player
pobijediti
to win
Questions & Answers about Igrači su jučer pobijedili.
Why does the verb pobijedili end in -i?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb changes to match the subject. Because igrači (players) is a masculine plural group, the verb takes the masculine plural ending -li. If the players were an all-female team, it would be pobijedile.
Why do we need the word su here?
The word su means "are" (from the verb to be). In Croatian, the past tense is made of two parts: a short form of "to be" and the past action word. So, to say "won", Croatian literally builds it as "are won" (su pobijedili).
Why is su placed right after igrači, separated from the main verb?
su is a short, unstressed word called an enclitic. A strict rule in Croatian is that enclitics must go in the second position in the sentence. Igrači takes the first spot, so su has to be second, pushing jučer and the rest of the sentence further back.
How do we know igrači is plural?
The singular form of the word is igrač (player), which ends in a consonant, making it a regular masculine noun. To make most masculine nouns plural, you simply add an -i to the end, giving us igrači.