Breakdown of Jeste li jučer napravili zadaću?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
zadaća
homework
jučer
yesterday
napraviti
to do / to make
Questions & Answers about Jeste li jučer napravili zadaću?
Why do we use Jeste li at the beginning of this past tense question?
To ask a yes/no question in the past tense, you start with a form of the helper verb biti (to be) followed by the question word li. Jeste is the plural or formal 'you' form of this helper verb. Together, Jeste li acts just like 'Did you' in English.
Is this sentence addressing one person or a group of people?
It could be either! In Croatian, the plural form is used both for addressing multiple people ('you all') and for addressing one person formally (like a teacher or a stranger). Because of this, we use the plural helper verb Jeste and the plural verb ending on napravili in both situations.
Why does the main verb napravili end in -li?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb changes its ending based on the gender and number of the people who did the action. The -li ending is used for the plural 'you', assuming the group includes at least one male (or if you are speaking formally to a male). If you were asking a group of only females, or one female formally, the verb would be napravile.
Why is the word for homework written as zadaću instead of zadaća?
Zadaća is a feminine noun. Because the homework is the direct object of the sentence (it is the thing that was done), it must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, this means changing the final letter to -u.
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