Breakdown of Je li itko išta čuo sinoć?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
li
question particle
čuti
to hear
sinoć
last night
itko
anyone
išta
anything
Questions & Answers about Je li itko išta čuo sinoć?
Why do we use itko and išta here instead of netko and nešto?
The i- prefix in itko (anyone) and išta (anything) is specifically used for questions and conditional "if" clauses. If this were a regular statement like "Someone heard something," you would use the ne- forms instead: Netko je nešto čuo.
What case are itko and išta in?
itko is the subject of the sentence, so it is in the nominative case. išta is the direct object being heard, so it is in the accusative case. For išta, the nominative and accusative forms happen to look exactly the same.
Why is the verb čuo in the masculine singular form?
The pronoun itko is always treated as grammatically masculine and singular. Even if you are asking a group of women if "anyone" heard something, you must use the masculine singular verb form čuo to agree with itko.
Where is the auxiliary verb for the past tense here?
It is right at the beginning! The question phrase Je li is made of the auxiliary verb je (is) and the question particle li. Together with the active past participle čuo, it forms the past tense meaning "did hear" or "has heard".
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