Breakdown of Dobra večer! Mi smo gladni.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
mi
we
gladan
hungry
dobra večer
good evening
Questions & Answers about Dobra večer! Mi smo gladni.
Why is it dobra and not dobar or dobro? Doesn't večer end in a consonant?
In Croatian, most nouns that end in a consonant are masculine, but večer (evening) is a special exception—it is a feminine noun! Because it is feminine, the adjective for "good" must also be in its feminine form, dobra.
Do I always have to say the pronoun mi (we)?
No, you can just say smo gladni. Croatian often drops pronouns because the verb (smo) already tells us who is doing the action. Including mi here just adds a little extra emphasis, like saying "We are hungry."
Why does gladni end in "-i"?
Gladni is the plural form of the adjective gladan (hungry). The "-i" ending is used for a group of males, or a mixed group of males and females. If "we" refers to a group of only women, you would say gladne instead.
If the dictionary word for hungry is gladan, why isn't the plural gladani?
The word gladan has what is called a "fleeting a". When adding an ending like the plural "-i", that last "a" disappears. So it becomes gladni instead of "gladani", which makes it faster and easier to pronounce.