Breakdown of Moramo umanjiti cijenu popravka.
cijena
price
morati
must
popravak
alteration
umanjiti
to reduce
Questions & Answers about Moramo umanjiti cijenu popravka.
How is the verb umanjiti formed in this sentence?
It is built from the comparative adjective manji (smaller). By adding the prefix u- and the suffix -iti, we get umanjiti, which literally means to make smaller or to reduce. This is a common pattern for turning adjectives into verbs that express a change of state.
Why use the prefix u- here instead of o- like in olakšati (to lighten)?
Both u- and o- are used to create these change-of-state verbs, but you generally just have to memorize which prefix goes with which adjective root. For manji, the correct prefix is u-. There is no standard Croatian verb omanjiti.
Since umanjiti is formed with a prefix, is it perfective?
Yes! Verbs formed this way (adjective + prefix + -iti or -ati) are almost always perfective, focusing on the completion of the change. If you needed to express an ongoing process like we are reducing the price, you would use its imperfective pair, umanjivati.
Why does the word popravak change to popravka here?