Breakdown of Je li njihovo dvorište veliko?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
velik
big
li
question particle
njihov
their
Questions & Answers about Je li njihovo dvorište veliko?
Why do we use njihovo here instead of just njihov?
njihovo means their and it must match the gender of the noun it belongs to. The noun here is dvorište (yard), which is neuter. The base masculine form is njihov, but we add -o to make it neuter to match dvorište.
How do I know that dvorište is a neuter noun?
In Croatian, nouns that end in -o or -e in the dictionary form (nominative case) are almost always neuter. Because dvorište ends in -e, it is neuter.
Why does veliko end in -o?
Just like the possessive word njihovo, the adjective for big must also match the neuter noun dvorište. The base masculine form of the adjective is velik, and we add -o to make the neuter form veliko.
What is the purpose of li in this sentence?
li is a question particle used to form yes/no questions. When asking a question that starts with a verb like je (is), Croatian puts li right after the verb. So, Je li is the standard way to ask Is...?