Breakdown of Radnici kreću u zoru.
radnik
worker
zora
dawn (u zoru = at dawn)
kretati
to set off, to leave (imperfective)
Questions & Answers about Radnici kreću u zoru.
Why is the plural of radnik spelled radnici instead of radniki?
This is due to a sound change called sibilarization. In Croatian, when a masculine word ends in -k, -g, or -h, that consonant changes to -c, -z, or -s before the plural ending -i. So, the k in radnik becomes a c in radnici.
The verb here is kreću, but the dictionary form is kretati. Where does the ć come from?
Many Croatian verbs ending in -ati undergo a consonant change in the present tense. For kretati, the t changes to ć, creating the present tense stem kreć-. Adding the third-person plural ending -u gives us kreću.
Why is u zoru in the accusative case here instead of the locative?
While the preposition u takes the locative case to describe a static location, it takes the accusative case for certain time expressions. Just like you use the accusative for days of the week, such as u srijedu (on Wednesday), you use it for specific times of day like u zoru (at dawn).
Does kretati always mean to set off?
Its basic meaning is to move, but in the context of a journey or trip, it idiomatically means to set off, to head out, or to depart. If you want to talk about physical movement, like a person or object moving around, you would normally use the reflexive form kretati se.
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