Breakdown of Svaki kabel mora biti zategnut.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
morati
must
svaki
every, each
kabel
cable
Questions & Answers about Svaki kabel mora biti zategnut.
How do we get the form zategnut from the verb zategnuti?
Zategnut is a passive participle meaning "tightened". For regular verbs that end in -nuti, the passive participle is formed by dropping the final -ti from the infinitive and adding -t. So, zategnu(ti) becomes zategnut.
Why does zategnut not have a vowel ending like -a or -o here?
The passive participle acts like an adjective and must agree with the noun it describes. It describes kabel (cable), which is a masculine singular noun in the nominative case. Therefore, it takes the base masculine singular form, which ends in a consonant. If the sentence were about a feminine noun like žica (wire), it would be zategnuta.
Why do we use the infinitive biti instead of a conjugated form like je?
We use biti (to be) because it directly follows the modal verb mora (must). In Croatian, just like in English, a modal verb is followed by the infinitive of the next verb, creating the structure mora biti (must be).
Could I use the shorter word svak instead of svaki here?