Breakdown of Liječnici su bili dežurni od petka do nedjelje.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
liječnik
doctor
od
from
do
to, until, up to / in the mood for (as in "I'm not in the mood for")
petak
Friday
nedjelja
Sunday
dežuran
on duty
Questions & Answers about Liječnici su bili dežurni od petka do nedjelje.
Why do the days of the week change to petka and nedjelje here?
The prepositions od (from) and do (to) both require the Genitive case. The dictionary forms are petak (Friday) and nedjelja (Sunday). In the Genitive, the feminine noun nedjelja takes an -e ending to become nedjelje. For petak, it drops the fleeting a and takes the standard masculine Genitive -a ending, becoming petka.
How does the word dežurni translate to "on duty"?
While "on duty" is a prepositional phrase in English, dežurni is an adjective in Croatian. It literally means "on-duty". Because it describes the masculine plural subject liječnici, it takes the matching masculine plural ending -i.
Why does liječnik change to liječnici in the plural?
This is a spelling and pronunciation rule where the letter -k changes to -c before adding the masculine plural -i ending. You will see this often with professions, so liječnik naturally becomes liječnici.
Why is su placed before bili instead of after?
The word su is an enclitic, which is a stress-free word that almost always naturally falls into the second position in a sentence. Here, it must come immediately after the first grammatical unit, Liječnici, pushing the participle bili to the third position.
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