Breakdown of Ti radnici su u ponedjeljak radili kao konji.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
raditi
to work
u
in, into
radnik
worker
Questions & Answers about Ti radnici su u ponedjeljak radili kao konji.
How does the word kao work in this sentence, and what case is konji?
kao means 'like' or 'as'. When comparing two things with kao, the second noun usually takes the same case as the first one. Because the workers (radnici) are the subject of the sentence (nominative case), the horses (konji) are also in the nominative plural.
Why is Ti used instead of Te or Ta for 'those'?
Ti is the masculine plural nominative form of the word for 'that' (taj). It has to match the noun it describes, which is radnici (workers, a masculine plural noun). If we were talking about female workers (radnice), we would use Te radnice.
Why do we say u ponedjeljak for 'on Monday'? Doesn't u usually mean 'in'?
Yes, u often means 'in' or 'into', but Croatian uses u followed by the accusative case to express that an action happens 'on' a specific day of the week. The accusative of ponedjeljak looks exactly the same as the dictionary form because it is an inanimate masculine noun.
Why is the past tense verb (su radili) split up in this sentence?