Breakdown of U djetinjstvu smo obično igrali nogomet cijeli dan.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
dan
day
u
in, into
igrati
to play (sports)
Questions & Answers about U djetinjstvu smo obično igrali nogomet cijeli dan.
Why is the imperfective verb igrali used here instead of a perfective verb?
The sentence describes a repeated, habitual action in the past. Words like obično (usually) and phrases showing duration like cijeli dan (the whole day) almost always require an imperfective verb, because they focus on the ongoing process or habit rather than a single completed event.
Why does the auxiliary verb smo come right after U djetinjstvu?
smo is a clitic, which means it is a short, unstressed word that must take the second position in a sentence. The entire prepositional phrase U djetinjstvu (in childhood) counts as the first block of information, so the second position falls exactly after it.
What case is cijeli dan in, and why isn't there a preposition before it?
cijeli dan is in the accusative case. In Croatian, when you state how long an action lasted to show duration of time, you simply use the bare accusative case without any preposition.
Why does the main verb igrali end in -li?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb changes its ending based on gender and number. The -li ending is for masculine or mixed-gender plural subjects. Because the auxiliary verb smo (we) makes the subject plural, igrali takes the plural ending.