Breakdown of Budući da je glavna cesta zatvorena, vozači koriste alternativnu obilaznicu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
zatvoren
closed
vozač
driver
glavni
main
koristiti
to use
cesta
road
budući da
since
alternativan
alternative
obilaznica
bypass
Questions & Answers about Budući da je glavna cesta zatvorena, vozači koriste alternativnu obilaznicu.
Can I flip the sentence and put the budući da clause at the end?
No, and this is the main rule for budući da. It must be placed at the beginning of the sentence to introduce a known cause before the effect. If you want to state the action first and the reason second, you must use jer or zato što (because) instead.
Why does the short verb je come right after budući da?
The word je is a clitic (a 'weak' word that cannot stand alone), which means it naturally seeks the second position in its clause. The phrase budući da acts as a single conjunction block occupying the first position, so the clitic je slots in right behind it.
Is zatvorena a verb or an adjective here?
It is a passive participle, which functions exactly like an adjective in this context. It comes from the verb zatvoriti (to close). Since it describes the feminine subject glavna cesta (main road), it takes the matching feminine nominative ending -a.
Why do the words in alternativnu obilaznicu end in -u?
This phrase is the direct object receiving the action of the verb koriste (they use), which triggers the accusative case. Both the adjective and the noun are feminine words that originally end in -a in their nominative dictionary forms, and that -a changes to -u in the accusative.
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