Breakdown of Tvrdi da su njegove teorije zanimljive.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
zanimljiv
interesting
njegov
his
da
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Tvrdi da su njegove teorije zanimljive.
Why does su come directly after da, separating 'that' from 'his theories'?
This is the strict 'second position' rule in action! Short, unstressed words called clitics (like the verb su) must take the second spot in their clause. When a subordinate clause starts with a conjunction like da, kad, or ako, that conjunction counts as the first block. Therefore, the clitic su is forced to snap right next to it.
Could I say Tvrdi da njegove teorije su zanimljive, matching the English word order?
Why do njegove, teorije, and zanimljive all end in -e?
This is a great example of feminine plural agreement. The singular noun is teorija (a feminine word ending in -a). In the nominative plural, feminine nouns change their ending to -e to become teorije. The possessive pronoun (njegova) and the adjective (zanimljiva) must match this gender and number, so they both take the -e ending as well.
How do we know it translates to 'He claims' when there is no word for 'he' in the sentence?