Breakdown of Požar je bjesnio satima u šumi.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
u
in, into
šuma
forest
sat
hour
požar
fire
bjesnjeti
to rage
Questions & Answers about Požar je bjesnio satima u šumi.
Why is satima in the Instrumental case here without any preposition?
In Croatian, you express continuous duration—like "for hours," "for days" (danima), or "for years" (godinama)—by using the bare Instrumental plural. You don't need a preposition. If you tried to literally translate "for hours" using a preposition like za, it would be grammatically incorrect for this meaning.
Could I use a perfective verb instead of the imperfective bjesnio here?
No, because the sentence describes an ongoing, continuous action that lasted for a block of time (satima). When using bare Instrumental time words to show how long an uninterrupted process was happening, you must pair them with imperfective verbs.
Why use požar instead of vatra for "fire"?
Vatra is the general word for fire, such as a cozy fire in a fireplace or a controlled campfire. Požar specifically means a destructive, out-of-control fire, like a wildfire or a burning building. Since this fire is raging in a forest, požar is the exact word you need.
Just a quick refresher: why is it u šumi (Locative) and not u šumu (Accusative)?
The preposition u takes the Locative case when it describes a static location (where an event takes place). It takes the Accusative when indicating destination or motion into a place. Since the fire is already located in the forest and burning there, rather than moving into the forest from the outside, we use the Locative šumi.
Learn Požar je bjesnio satima u šumi and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free