Breakdown of Mađioničar je impresionirao djecu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
djeca
children
mađioničar
magician
impresionirati
to impress
Questions & Answers about Mađioničar je impresionirao djecu.
How can we tell if impresionirao is perfective or imperfective in this sentence?
Impresionirati is a dual-aspect verb (dvovidni glagol). Because it is a borrowed international word ending in the suffix -irati, it can describe both an ongoing process and a completed action without changing its form or taking a prefix. Here, the English translation tells us it's a completed action, so it functions as a perfective verb.
Since it is dual-aspect, how would we say 'was impressing' instead of 'impressed'?
You would use this exact same sentence! Because impresionirati covers both aspects, Mađioničar je impresionirao djecu translates to both 'The magician impressed the children' and 'The magician was impressing the children.' You rely purely on the surrounding context of the conversation to know which one is meant.
Djecu means 'children', which is plural. Why does it have the -u ending of a feminine singular noun?
The word djeca (children) is a special collective noun. Even though it refers to a plural group, it behaves grammatically exactly like a feminine singular noun. Because the children are the direct object receiving the action in this sentence, the word takes the standard feminine singular accusative ending -u.
Could we put the action before the auxiliary verb, like Impresionirao je mađioničar djecu?
Yes, but it changes the focus. The standard, neutral word order is Subject-Verb-Object. If you start the sentence with the action word Impresionirao, you are placing heavy emphasis on the action itself. Notice that no matter what comes first, the 'weak' auxiliary verb je must always stay in the second position.
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