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Questions & Answers about Glavni krivac šuti.
Since we are learning about emphatic pronouns, could I add njega to this sentence to emphasize the culprit?
No, because njega is the Accusative or Genitive form (him). In this sentence, the culprit is the subject doing the action, which means it must be in the Nominative case. If you wanted to replace the noun with an emphasized pronoun, it would be the Nominative on (He is keeping quiet), not njega.
Does the adjective glavni have a short (indefinite) form like other adjectives?
No. Unlike many adjectives that have both short and long forms (like nov vs. novi), glavni (main) only exists in this long, definite form ending in -i.
Is the noun krivac related to other words I might know?
Yes! It comes from the adjective kriv, which means guilty or wrong. Adding the suffix -ac is a common way to turn an adjective into a masculine noun describing a person, so krivac literally means the guilty one or the culprit.
What is the infinitive form of the verb šuti?
The infinitive is šutjeti (to be quiet or to keep silent). In the present tense, it belongs to the group of verbs that use -i endings: ja šutim, ti šutiš, on/ona/ono šuti, and so on.