Questions & Answers about On je sigurno ukrao jedne hlače.
How do we know sigurno means "certainly" here, rather than "safe"?
While sigurno is the neuter form of the adjective for "safe," here it is acting as an epistemic adverb (an adverb showing the speaker's certainty). When used this way to express a judgment about the whole sentence, it translates to "certainly" or "for sure."
Why is the word for "one" written in a plural form (jedne)?
The noun hlače (pants) only exists in the plural form. In Croatian, when you want to count a noun that is strictly plural, the number jedan must also take a plural ending. Since hlače is grammatically feminine plural, "one" becomes jedne.
What case is jedne hlače in this sentence?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the verb ukrao (stole). For feminine plural nouns, the accusative form looks identical to the nominative form, which is why the word hlače doesn't appear to change.
If I wanted to emphasize sigurno by putting it at the start of the sentence, how would the word order change?
Because the auxiliary verb je is an enclitic, it must always take the second logical position in the sentence. If you drop the pronoun on and start with the adverb, the sentence becomes: Sigurno je ukrao jedne hlače.