Breakdown of Uragan je toliko poharao otok da su ljudi izgubili sve.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ljudi
people
otok
island
izgubiti
to lose
sav
all (of a whole) / everyone, all (people) / everything
da
that (conjunction)
toliko
so much, so many
uragan
hurricane
poharati
to ravage
Questions & Answers about Uragan je toliko poharao otok da su ljudi izgubili sve.
How does the toliko ... da structure work in this sentence?
Why does toliko come between the auxiliary verb je and the main verb poharao?
In Croatian, enclitics (unstressed words like je) must take the second position in a clause. The first position here is the subject Uragan. This forces je into the second slot, separating it from the main verb poharao, while toliko naturally stays right before the action it describes.
Why is the word sve used at the end instead of svi?
Sve is the neuter singular accusative pronoun meaning 'everything'. If you used svi (masculine plural), it would mean 'everyone' or 'all the people'. In this context, the people lost 'everything' (sve), not 'everyone'.
Since otok (island) is the direct object being ravaged, why doesn't its ending change to show the accusative case?
Otok is a masculine noun. For inanimate masculine nouns (things, places, weather events), the accusative case form is exactly identical to the nominative case. If the hurricane had targeted an animate masculine noun (like a person or animal), you would see an -a ending added to it.
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