Breakdown of Kraj zaljeva je stari svjetionik.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
star
old
svjetionik
lighthouse
kraj
next to (+ genitive)
zaljev
bay
Questions & Answers about Kraj zaljeva je stari svjetionik.
Why does the sentence use zaljeva instead of the dictionary form zaljev?
The preposition kraj (meaning "next to" or "beside") requires the noun that follows it to be in the Genitive case. Because zaljev (bay) is a regular masculine noun, it takes the ending -a in the Genitive, becoming zaljeva.
Where is the word for "there" in the Croatian sentence?
Croatian doesn't use filler subjects like the "there" in "there is" or "there are". To say "There is an old lighthouse next to the bay," you simply state the location, the verb "to be" (je), and the subject. Literally, the sentence reads: "Next to the bay is an old lighthouse."
Why does the verb je come right after zaljeva?
The word je (is) is an enclitic, which is a "weak" word that cannot start a sentence and strictly belongs in the second position. Here, the whole prepositional phrase Kraj zaljeva (Next to the bay) counts as the first grammatical block, so je slides perfectly into the second position.
Why does the adjective have an extra "-i" in stari instead of just star, if the English translation says "an old lighthouse"?
Strictly speaking, star is the indefinite form ("an old") and stari is the definite form ("the old"). However, in modern everyday Croatian, the distinction often blurs for masculine adjectives. Native speakers frequently default to the -i ending even when talking about something unspecified, so stari sounds perfectly natural here.
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