Breakdown of U žurbi sam zato što je promet danas gori.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
danas
today
u
in, into
gori
worse
žurba
hurry
zato što
because
promet
traffic
Questions & Answers about U žurbi sam zato što je promet danas gori.
Why use zato što instead of jer here, and can I swap them?
Both mean 'because' and you can absolutely use jer here (jer je promet danas gori). Zato što is just a bit more emphatic, pointing directly to the cause. It literally translates to 'for that what'.
Why is the word for hurry spelled žurbi instead of žurba?
The preposition u (in) requires the locative case here because it describes a state, not a motion towards something. The dictionary form is žurba (hurry), and feminine nouns ending in -a change to -i in the locative case.
Is gori a regular adjective form for 'worse'?
No, gori is an irregular comparative. The base adjective for 'bad' is loš. Just like in English (bad becomes worse), the Croatian word changes completely to gori. Since promet (traffic) is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form gori.
Why does the verb je come right after zato što?
Je (is) is an enclitic, which means it is a weak word that must sit in the second position of its clause. The phrase zato što acts as the first block of this new clause, so je naturally drops in right after it, before the subject promet.
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