Breakdown of Ti plemići dolažahu na bal.
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
dolaziti
to come
taj
that (masculine)
plemić
nobleman
bal
ball (formal dance)
Questions & Answers about Ti plemići dolažahu na bal.
What tense is dolažahu, and how can I recognize it?
It is the imperfect tense (imperfekt), an older literary tense used for continuous or repeated past actions. You can recognize the 3rd person plural by the -ahu ending. In everyday modern Croatian, you would simply use the perfect tense: su dolazili.
Why does the verb stem have a ž in dolažahu instead of the z seen in dolaziti?
The imperfect tense often causes a consonant mutation when its endings are attached to the verb stem. For verbs like dolaziti, the final z of the stem softens and changes to ž before the imperfect suffix.
Is the word plemići a regular plural?
Yes, it is the regular nominative plural of plemić (nobleman). Since the noun ends in the soft consonant ć, it simply takes the standard masculine plural ending -i without any additional sound shifts.
Why does the sentence use na bal instead of na balu?
The preposition na takes the accusative case here because it expresses motion toward a destination (they were coming to the ball). If they were already located at the ball, you would use the locative case na balu.
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