Breakdown of Jesi li se zaljubio u nju?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ona
she
li
question particle
u
in, into
zaljubiti se
to fall in love
Questions & Answers about Jesi li se zaljubio u nju?
Why does Croatian use u here when English says 'with'?
In English, you fall in love 'with' someone, but in Croatian, the verb zaljubiti se (to fall in love) always pairs with the preposition u followed by the Accusative case. You can think of it as literally falling 'into' someone!
Why is the pronoun nju used instead of the short form je?
Whenever a pronoun comes immediately after a preposition like u, Croatian requires you to use its full, emphatic form. The short, unstressed Accusative form je can never be placed directly after a preposition, so the full form nju must be used here.
Does the word zaljubio tell us anything about the person being spoken to?
Why is the reflexive pronoun se placed right after Jesi li?
The word se is a clitic (a small, unstressed word), and Croatian has strict rules requiring clitics to go in the second position of a sentence. The question phrase Jesi li acts as the first grammatical block, so se naturally takes the very next spot.
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