Breakdown of Zašto je počela ova svađa?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
zašto
why
početi
to begin
svađa
argument
Questions & Answers about Zašto je počela ova svađa?
Why is the verb počela in the feminine form?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb must match the gender of the subject. The subject here is svađa (argument), which is a feminine noun because it ends in -a. Therefore, the verb takes the feminine singular ending, becoming počela. Even though an argument is an 'it' in English, Croatian grammar treats it as feminine.
Is it normal to put the subject ova svađa at the very end of the sentence?
Yes, Croatian word order is very flexible! In questions starting with a question word like Zašto (Why), the second spot is strictly reserved for short helper words like je. The main verb počela usually follows right after. Pushing the subject ova svađa to the end sounds very natural and flows well, though Zašto je ova svađa počela? would also be perfectly correct.
The dictionary form for 'to start' is početi. How do we get počela from that?
To make the past tense in Croatian, you generally drop the -ti from the infinitive and add the past endings. For početi, dropping the -ti leaves the base poče-. Then you just add the feminine singular ending -la to match the subject, giving you počela.
Why do we use ova instead of ovo or ovaj for 'this'?
Words like 'this' must agree with the noun they describe. Because svađa is a feminine singular noun, the word for 'this' must also take the feminine singular form, which is ova. If the noun were masculine, you would use ovaj, and if it were neuter, you would use ovo.
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