Breakdown of Koji vrag se ovdje događa?
ovdje
here
koji
which
događati se
to happen, to be going on (imperfective)
vrag
devil
Questions & Answers about Koji vrag se ovdje događa?
Why does the sentence use Koji (which) instead of Što (what)?
In Croatian, this idiom uses koji to agree with the noun it modifies. Since vrag (devil) is a masculine noun, it takes the masculine nominative form koji. You are literally asking "Which devil is happening here?" to express "What the hell is going on here?".
Why is the word se placed after vrag instead of right after the first word, Koji?
se is an enclitic, which is a short word that must go in the second position of a sentence. While this can sometimes be after the very first word, Koji vrag functions together as a single noun phrase. Therefore, the enclitic se is placed right after the entire phrase.
Why do we use the verb form događa instead of dogodi?
događa is the present tense form of the imperfective verb događati se (to be happening). You use the imperfective aspect here because the action is ongoing right now. If you were talking about a single, completed event, you would use its perfective partner, dogoditi se.
What grammatical case is Koji vrag in?
It is in the nominative case. Even though this is a figure of speech, grammatically the phrase acting as "which devil" is the subject of the sentence.
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