Breakdown of Ovi ljudi su stari.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
ljudi
people
star
old
Questions & Answers about Ovi ljudi su stari.
Why is the word for "people" ljudi? Isn't the word for person čovjek?
Yes! Ljudi is the plural form of čovjek (person or man). It is one of the most common irregular plurals in Croatian, completely changing the word instead of just adding a normal plural ending.
Why do we use ovi instead of ovo for "these"?
Why does the adjective star have an -i at the end here?
In Croatian, adjectives have to match the noun they describe. Because ljudi is masculine plural, the base adjective star (old) takes the masculine plural ending -i to become stari.
Could I change the word order and say Ovi ljudi stari su?
No, that would sound unnatural. The word su (are) is a short, unstressed word called a clitic. Clitics almost always need to take the second position in a sentence. In this case, the entire phrase Ovi ljudi counts as the first position, so su must go right after it.