Breakdown of Procedura u veleposlanstvu je uvijek duga.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
uvijek
always
dug
long
u
in, into
procedura
procedure
veleposlanstvo
embassy
Questions & Answers about Procedura u veleposlanstvu je uvijek duga.
How would we turn this sentence into a wish like 'If only the procedure at the embassy wasn't always long!' using samo da?
You would start with samo da and negate the verb. For a wish about a present reality, you can just use the present tense: Samo da procedura u veleposlanstvu nije uvijek duga! You could also use the conditional to make it sound more hypothetical: Samo da procedura ne bi bila uvijek duga!
Why doesn't the verb je come right after Procedura to satisfy the second-position rule?
Because Procedura u veleposlanstvu (The procedure at the embassy) acts as a single logical unit. The short verb form je is an enclitic, meaning it wants to be in the second grammatical position. Placing it right after Procedura would unnaturally break up the subject phrase.
The word veleposlanstvu is quite long. Is there an easy way to break it down and remember it?
Yes! It is the locative form of veleposlanstvo, which you can split into two parts: vele- (a prefix meaning great or grand, related to velik) and poslanstvo (mission or delegation, from the verb poslati meaning to send). So an embassy is literally a 'grand mission'.
Would the adjective duga change if we used a masculine noun like proces instead of procedura?
Yes, duga is the feminine singular nominative form to agree with procedura. If you used the masculine noun proces, you would use the masculine indefinite adjective form: Proces u veleposlanstvu je uvijek dug.
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