Learn Croatian: Oni su umrli od gladi u prošlosti. - They died of hunger in the past.

Glad is a feminine noun that ends in a consonant, which means it belongs to the feminine i-declension group. The preposition od (from/of) requires the Genitive case. For these special feminine nouns, the Genitive singular ending is always -i, making it od gladi.

Is prošlosti another i-declension noun like gladi?

Yes! The base word is prošlost (the past), which is also a feminine noun ending in a consonant. The preposition u (in/at) requires the Locative case when talking about a static point in time. For feminine i-declension nouns, the Locative singular also ends in -i, giving us u prošlosti.

Why do we use the preposition od to say they died "of" hunger?

In English, we say someone died "of" or "from" hunger. In Croatian, the preposition od (followed by the Genitive case) is used to express the physical cause of an event or state. You will see this often in phrases like umrijeti od (to die from) or drhtati od (to shiver from).

How would this sentence change if "they" referred to a group of women?

If "they" were all women, the pronoun would be One, and the active past participle umrli would change to its feminine plural form, umrle. The sentence would become: One su umrle od gladi u prošlosti.