Breakdown of Jesu li kupili karte? Naravno.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
karta
ticket
kupiti
to buy (perfective)
Questions & Answers about Jesu li kupili karte? Naravno.
Why does the sentence start with Jesu instead of su?
Su is the short form of the helper verb meaning "they are". In Croatian, short forms are never allowed to be the very first word in a sentence. Because of this, we have to use the long form jesu to start the question.
How does the yes/no question structure work in this past tense sentence?
To ask a yes/no question, you combine the long helper verb (jesu), the little question word (li), and the main action verb in the past tense (kupili). Literally, it reads like "Are they-bought tickets?"
How do we know who bought the tickets if there is no word for "they"?
The ending of the past tense verb tells us! The -li on kupili is the plural ending for men or a mixed group of men and women. If it had been a group of only women, the verb would be kupile.
Why is the word for tickets karte?
The base word for ticket is karta, which is a feminine noun. Since the tickets are the direct object (the things being bought), they must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns, the plural accusative ending is -e, giving us karte.