Breakdown of Zašto si počeo trenirati nogomet?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
zašto
why
nogomet
football
početi
to begin
Questions & Answers about Zašto si počeo trenirati nogomet?
Why is the verb trenirati in its imperfective form here?
In Croatian, phase verbs that describe the start, continuation, or end of an action, like počeo (started), must be followed by an imperfective infinitive. You use the imperfective because you are focusing on the ongoing process of training that was initiated, not a single completed event.
How do we know the gender of the person being asked?
Why is the short word si placed exactly after Zašto?
The word si (are) is an enclitic, which is a weak word without its own stress. In Croatian, enclitics strictly want to be in the second position of the sentence. Here, the question word Zašto takes the first position, so si must immediately follow it.
Why doesn't the word nogomet change its ending?
The word nogomet (football) is the direct object of the sentence, so it is in the accusative case. However, it looks exactly like the dictionary form (the nominative case) because it is a masculine inanimate noun. In Croatian, masculine inanimate nouns do not change their endings in the accusative singular.