Breakdown of Ove žene su lijepe.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
žena
woman
lijep
beautiful
Questions & Answers about Ove žene su lijepe.
Why does the word for women end in -e (žene)?
In Croatian, most feminine nouns that end in -a in the singular change their ending to -e in the plural. So, žena (woman) becomes žene (women).
Why is the word for "these" ove instead of ovi?
Words like "this" and "these" must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because žene is feminine and plural, we use the feminine plural form ove. If we were talking about men (masculine plural), we would use ovi.
Notice how ove, žene, and lijepe all end in -e. Is that a coincidence?
Not at all! This is a great example of how Croatian agreement works. Adjectives (lijepe) and demonstrative words (ove) must match the noun (žene) in gender and number. For feminine plural subjects, all of these words take the -e ending, creating a helpful matching pattern.
I learned that short words like su (are) have to be in the second position in a sentence. Why is it the third word here?