Breakdown of Jeste li pjevali pjesmu na rođendanu?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
pjevati
to sing
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
rođendan
birthday
pjesma
song
Questions & Answers about Jeste li pjevali pjesmu na rođendanu?
Why does the main verb end in -i (pjevali)?
The ending -i marks the masculine plural form of the past tense verb. Because the helper verb jeste tells us the subject is "you" plural (or formal "you"), the main verb must match it in the plural. This -i ending is used when speaking to a group of men or a mixed group of men and women.
Why do we start with Jeste li instead of the usual helper verb ste?
When forming a yes/no question, you cannot start a sentence with a short, unstressed word like ste. Instead, you must use its long, independent version, which is jeste. You then add the question word li right after it to form the question.
Why is the word for "song" spelled pjesmu instead of pjesma?
The dictionary form is pjesma. In this sentence, the song is the direct object—it is the thing receiving the action of being sung. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the ending changes to -u in the accusative case, which is the grammatical case required for direct objects.
Why do we use the preposition na for "at the birthday"?
In Croatian, events, parties, and open gatherings usually take the preposition na (on/at) rather than u (in). So for a birthday (rođendan), a concert, or a meeting, you use na. The noun then takes the -u ending because it is in the locative case, showing where the action happened.
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