Breakdown of Je li vam taj kandidat poznat?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
vam
to you
poznat
famous / familiar (to someone)
Questions & Answers about Je li vam taj kandidat poznat?
Why is the order Je li vam and not Je vam li?
In Croatian, small unstressed words called clitics group together in a strict order. The question particle li is the absolute boss of the clitic cluster and must always come first among them. Here, the clitic cluster is li followed by the dative pronoun vam. They attach to the first stressed word in the sentence, which is the verb Je.
Isn't the word je usually a clitic itself? How can it start the sentence?
You are right that je is normally an unstressed clitic. However, clitics cannot start a sentence. To form a yes/no question with li, the verb has to come first. Because it is forced into the first position, je acts as a stressed word here, providing an anchor for the clitics li and vam that follow.
Why do we use the dative pronoun vam here instead of the accusative vas?
The adjective poznat (known or familiar) requires the dative case for the person who knows the information. Just like in English where you might say known to you, Croatian uses the dative clitic vam to show to whom the candidate is familiar.
Why does the sentence use poznat instead of poznati?