Questions & Answers about Je li to pismo od majke?
Why does the word for mother end in -e (majke) here?
The word majka is in the genitive case here because it comes after the preposition od (from). For most feminine nouns that end in -a, the ending changes to -e in the genitive case.
Both od and iz mean "from". Why do we use od in this sentence?
We use od when we are receiving something from a person (like majke). The preposition iz is used when talking about coming out of a physical place or location, like a city or country.
Can od majke also mean "mother's"?
Yes! Using od + the genitive case is a common way to show possession in Croatian. Depending on the context, pismo od majke could mean "a letter from mother" (origin) or "mother's letter / the letter of mother" (possession).
Why do we start the question with Je li instead of just Je?
To ask a simple "yes/no" question in Croatian, you pair the verb (here, je meaning "is") with the question particle li. You cannot just put the short word je at the start of a sentence by itself.