Breakdown of Svi smo se udebljali zbog previše hrane, zar ne?
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ne
no, not
previše
too many / too (with an adjective)
zar
really? (surprise) / right? (tag question)
sav
all (of a whole) / everyone, all (people) / everything
hrana
food
zbog
because of
udebljati se
to gain weight
Questions & Answers about Svi smo se udebljali zbog previše hrane, zar ne?
How does zar ne work here compared to English question tags?
In English, question tags change based on the pronoun and the auxiliary verb (didn't we, haven't they, aren't I). In Croatian, zar ne is completely invariant. You can tack it onto the end of any statement to ask for agreement or confirmation, regardless of the tense or person used in the main sentence.
Why are the words smo and se placed right after Svi?
Both smo and se are enclitics, which are unstressed words that must occupy the second position in a sentence. Svi takes up the first position, so the enclitic cluster smo se follows immediately. Remember that in the strict Croatian enclitic order, the verbal auxiliary (smo) always comes before the reflexive pronoun (se).
In the phrase zbog previše hrane, does the preposition zbog or the adverb previše dictate the case of hrane?
Conveniently, they both do! The preposition zbog (because of) always requires the genitive case. Additionally, previše (too much) is an adverb of quantity, which also forces the noun that follows it into the genitive. So the nominative hrana becomes the genitive hrane in either situation.
The translation says 'gained weight', but how is the verb udebljali se constructed?
It comes from the reflexive verb udebljati se, which literally translates to 'to become fat' or 'to fatten oneself'. It is built from the root of the adjective debeo (fat or thick). The reflexive pronoun se indicates that this change of state happened to the subjects themselves.
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