Breakdown of Pobijedili smo i jeli tortu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
i
and (additive)
jesti
to eat
torta
cake (layered)
pobijediti
to win
Questions & Answers about Pobijedili smo i jeli tortu.
Why do both past tense verbs, pobijedili and jeli, end in -i?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb changes its ending to match the subject. The -i ending shows that the subject is a plural masculine group, or a mixed group of males and females. If "we" was a group of only women, the verbs would end in -e: Pobijedile smo i jele tortu.
How do we know this means "we" if the word mi isn't in the sentence?
The helper verb smo is the "we" form of the verb to be. Because smo makes it completely clear who is doing the action, the pronoun mi (we) is usually dropped. Also, because mi was dropped, the main verb Pobijedili takes the first spot in the sentence, pushing the helper word smo into its required second position.
Why is there only one smo if there are two past tense verbs?
When you connect multiple past tense actions with i (and) for the exact same subject, you only need to use the helper verb once. It carries over to the second verb automatically. Saying Pobijedili smo i jeli smo tortu would sound repetitive and unnatural to a native speaker.
Why is the word for cake tortu instead of its dictionary form torta?
Because the cake is the direct object of the sentence—it is the thing being eaten. This means it must take the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a like torta, the ending changes to -u in the accusative case.
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