Questions & Answers about Netko je pucao u banci!
If we don't know who the shooter is, why does the verb pucao have a masculine ending?
The indefinite pronoun netko (someone) always takes masculine singular agreement in Croatian, regardless of who the actual person might be. That's why the past tense verb is pucao (masculine) and not pucala (feminine) or pucalo (neuter).
How do we know the person was shooting continuously, rather than just firing one shot?
We know this because of the verb aspect. Pucao comes from the imperfective verb pucati, which describes an ongoing or repeated action (was shooting). If the person had only fired a single shot, a perfective verb like puknuo or a phrase like ispalio metak (fired a bullet) would be used instead.
Could I use the accusative case and say u banku here?
You could, but it would completely change the meaning! U banci is the locative case, which tells us the action happened entirely inside the location (someone was standing inside the bank, shooting). If you used the accusative u banku, it would mean direction: someone was standing outside and shooting into the bank.
Why is the word for bank banci instead of banki?
This happens because of a Croatian sound change rule called sibilarization. For most feminine nouns ending in -a, if the consonant right before the -a is k, g, or h, it changes to c, z, or s when adding the -i ending for the dative or locative case. So, the base word banka becomes banci.
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