Breakdown of Radnici su neumorno kopali satima.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
radnik
worker
sat
hour
neumorno
tirelessly
kopati
to dig
Questions & Answers about Radnici su neumorno kopali satima.
Why is satima in the Instrumental case without any preposition?
In Croatian, the bare Instrumental plural is often used to express continuous duration of time. Words like satima (for hours), danima (for days), and godinama (for years) are used without a preposition to emphasize that an action went on continuously for a long, unspecified amount of that time unit.
Why must we use the imperfective verb kopali rather than a perfective form like iskopali?
Because satima implies an ongoing, continuous action rather than a completed one. You will almost always pair bare Instrumental time words like satima or danima with imperfective verbs to show that the action was in progress for that whole duration.
Could we place the auxiliary verb su later in the sentence, for example: Radnici neumorno su kopali satima?
No, su is an enclitic (a weak word without its own accent) and strictly belongs in the second position of the sentence. Here, it must immediately follow the first grammatical block, which is the subject Radnici.
What is the root of the word neumorno?
It is an adverb derived from the noun umor (fatigue or tiredness). With the negative prefix ne- and the suffix -no, neumorno literally translates to un-tired-ly or tirelessly.
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