Breakdown of Bili su nas obavijestili o kašnjenju preko razglasa.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
nas
us
preko
across, over
o
about / on (dependent on)
obavijestiti
to inform
kašnjenje
delay (lateness, being behind schedule)
razglas
loudspeaker
Questions & Answers about Bili su nas obavijestili o kašnjenju preko razglasa.
How is the pluperfect tense formed in the phrase Bili su nas obavijestili?
The pluperfect (Pluskvamperfekt) here is made of two parts. First, the past tense of the helper verb biti (bili su, meaning 'they were'). Second, the past action word (l-participle) of the main verb obavijestiti (obavijestili, meaning 'informed'). Together, bili su obavijestili translates to 'they had informed'.
Why is the pronoun nas placed between su and obavijestili?
Croatian has a strict order for its short, unstressed words (enclitics). The verb helper su must come before the object pronoun nas. Because enclitics naturally want to be in the second position of the sentence, they cluster together right after the starting word Bili, resulting in the sequence Bili + su + nas + obavijestili.
Why is the word for delay (kašnjenje) written as kašnjenju here?
The preposition o (about) requires the locative case when you are talking about something. Because kašnjenje is a neuter noun ending in -e, its locative ending changes to -u, making it o kašnjenju.
Which case is used after the preposition preko in preko razglasa?
The preposition preko (over, across, or via) always takes the genitive case. For the masculine noun razglas (loudspeaker or PA system), we add the standard genitive ending -a, giving us preko razglasa.
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