Breakdown of Jesi li zgodniji od svog brata?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
brat
brother
svoj
one's own
od
than (in comparison)
zgodan
handsome
Questions & Answers about Jesi li zgodniji od svog brata?
Why does the sentence use od svog brata instead of just od plus the basic form svoj brat?
In Croatian, when you use the preposition od to mean "than" in a comparison, the words that follow it must take the genitive case. That is why the masculine noun brat and its pronoun svoj change to their genitive forms, svog brata.
Why is the word for "your" svog here instead of tvog?
svog is the genitive form of svoj, a special possessive pronoun used when the thing being talked about belongs to the subject of the sentence. Since the subject is "you" (implied by the verb jesi), you use svoj to mean "your own" brother. While tvog brata would be understood, svog is the grammatically correct choice here.
How is the comparative word zgodniji (more handsome) formed from the basic adjective zgodan?
To make the comparative form for many adjectives, you add the ending -iji. First, you drop the fleeting 'a' from zgodan to get the root zgodn-, then add -iji to get zgodniji. Since this sentence is addressing a male, it uses this masculine form. If addressing a female, it would be zgodnija.
Could I start this question with Da li si instead of Jesi li?
Yes, Da li si zgodniji... means the exact same thing and is completely correct. However, starting with the long form of the verb "to be" (jesi) plus the question particle li is an extremely common and natural-sounding way to ask yes/no questions in Croatian.
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