Breakdown of Svi carevi i kraljevi moraju poštovati pravila.
i
and (additive)
morati
must
poštovati
to respect
pravilo
rule
sav
all (of a whole) / everyone, all (people) / everything
kralj
king
car
emperor
Questions & Answers about Svi carevi i kraljevi moraju poštovati pravila.
Why do car and kralj become carevi and kraljevi instead of just adding an -i?
Most short, one-syllable masculine nouns in Croatian need an extra piece (an infix) before the plural ending -i. Instead of just adding -i, you add -ov- or -ev-. So, car (emperor) becomes carevi, and kralj (king) becomes kraljevi.
Why do these words use the -ev- infix instead of -ov-?
The rule depends on the last letter of the noun. If a noun ends in a soft consonant (like c, č, ć, đ, dž, š, ž, j, lj, nj), it takes -ev-. Since kralj ends in the soft consonant lj, it becomes kraljevi. The word car ends in r, which is a special letter that sometimes counts as soft, so it also takes -ev- to become carevi.
Why is the word for all spelled Svi here instead of Sve?
What case is the word pravila (rules) in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb poštovati (to respect). Pravila is the plural form of the neuter noun pravilo. It is a common beginner trap to mistake words ending in -a for feminine singular nouns, but here it is neuter plural!
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