Breakdown of Na vrtuljak ide petero djece.
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
ići
to go
djeca
children
vrtuljak
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Questions & Answers about Na vrtuljak ide petero djece.
Why do we use petero instead of just pet?
Petero is a collective numeral. In Croatian, collective numerals are used to count groups of mixed genders (males and females together), and they are also the standard way to count the specific noun djeca (children). Therefore, "five children" is almost always expressed as petero djece.
Why is the word for children djece rather than djeca?
Collective numerals like petero, četvero, and troje require the noun following them to be in the genitive case. The genitive form of the collective noun djeca is djece.
If there are five children, why is the verb ide in the singular form?
In Croatian grammar, when a collective numeral like petero is the subject of a sentence, it acts grammatically as a single unit. Because of this, the verb must be in the third-person singular (ide). If this sentence were in the past tense, the verb would also take the neuter singular form (je išlo).
Why does the sentence use na vrtuljak instead of na vrtuljku?