Learn Croatian: Je li ovo oružje iz tog zločina? - Is this the weapon from that crime?

Je li ovo oružje iz tog zločina?

Is this the weapon from that crime?

Breakdown of Je li ovo oružje iz tog zločina?

biti

to be (sam, si, je)

ovaj

this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)

question particle

out of

Questions & Answers about Je li ovo oružje iz tog zločina?

Why do we start with Je li instead of the full verb Jest li?

When forming questions with the enclitic li, we normally use the long form of the verb. For the verb 'to be' (is), the long form is jest, so you might expect Jest li. However, Je li is a special exception and is the standard, most common way to ask 'Is...?' in Croatian.

Could we change the word order and put Je li somewhere else in the sentence?

No. When you form a yes/no question using a verb plus li, that verb and li must be placed at the very beginning of the sentence.

Why does ovo end in -o while oružje ends in -e?

They are both neuter words in the nominative case. Neuter nouns can end in either -o or -e. The pronoun for 'this' in the neuter gender is always ovo, so they match in gender and case even though their final letters differ.

Why does the ending of taj zločin change to tog zločina?

The preposition iz (from) always forces the words that follow it into the genitive case. The masculine word zločin (crime) gets an -a added to the end, and the pronoun taj (that) changes to tog.