Breakdown of Kakvo je vrijeme? Pada snijeg.
vrijeme
weather
kakav
what kind of / what a (exclamatory)
snijeg
snow
padati
to fall
Questions & Answers about Kakvo je vrijeme? Pada snijeg.
In English we ask How is the weather, so why does the Croatian sentence use Kakvo instead of Kako?
Kako means how and is used to describe actions or feelings. However, when asking for a description of a noun in Croatian, you use the adjective kakav (what kind of). Because vrijeme is a neuter noun, it takes the neuter form kakvo. You are literally asking what kind of weather is it.
I learned earlier that vrijeme means time. Does it also mean weather?
Yes! Vrijeme is a very common word that means both time and weather. You can always tell which meaning is intended from the context. Here, the mention of snow makes it clear we are talking about the weather.
Why is the verb first in Pada snijeg? Can I say Snijeg pada?
You can absolutely say Snijeg pada, but Croatian naturally tends to put the verb first when stating what the weather is doing. Saying Pada snijeg (literally: falls snow) is the standard way to announce that it is snowing right now.
What case is snijeg in here, and why?
Snijeg is in the nominative case, which is the basic dictionary form. This is because the snow is the subject doing the action. While English uses a dummy subject like it in it is snowing, Croatian simply states that the snow itself is falling.