Breakdown of Tijesan kroj otežat će krojaču posao.
posao
job / work
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
krojač
tailor
kroj
cut
tijesan
tight
otežati
to make difficult
Questions & Answers about Tijesan kroj otežat će krojaču posao.
How is the verb otežat formed in this sentence?
It is formed from the adjective težak (heavy, difficult). By taking the root tež- and adding the prefix o- and suffix -ati, we get otežati, which means "to make something difficult" or "to burden". This fits the exact pattern you are learning for turning adjectives into verbs that express a change of state.
Why is it written as otežat instead of the full infinitive otežati?
Because it is forming the Future I tense. When an infinitive ending in -ti is placed immediately before the future auxiliary word (će in this case), standard Croatian drops the final -i. So, otežati će becomes otežat će.
Why is krojaču in the dative case?
It acts as the "dative of interest" or experiencer. The action of making the job difficult happens to or for the tailor. Verbs that mean making things easier (olakšati) or harder (otežati) frequently take the dative for the person affected and the accusative for the thing being changed (here, the job or posao).
Notice how kroj and krojaču look similar. How are they related?
They share the same root. Kroj is a noun meaning "cut" or "pattern" (usually for clothing), and a krojač is a tailor. The related verb is krojiti, meaning "to cut out" or "to tailor".
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