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Questions & Answers about Gosti dolaze u sedam sati.
Why does this sentence use sati instead of sat or sata?
In Croatian, numbers 5 and higher require the following noun to be in the genitive plural. The genitive plural of sat (hour) is sati. If the time were 2, 3, or 4 o'clock, you would use the genitive singular instead: u dva sata.
I thought u meant "in" or "into". Why is it translated as "at"?
While u does mean "in" or "into" for physical space, it is also the standard preposition for expressing exact times on the clock, which translates to "at" in English.
Since the guests are arriving in the future, why is the verb dolaze in the present tense?
Just like in English ("The guests are coming"), Croatian frequently uses the present tense of imperfective verbs to talk about confirmed, scheduled plans in the near future.
If I wanted to say "The guests will arrive" using the future tense, how would the verb change?
You would use the future tense of the perfective verb doći (to arrive), making the sentence: Gosti će doći u sedam sati. Our sentence uses the present tense of its imperfective partner, dolaziti.