Breakdown of Ova žena je lijepa.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
žena
woman
lijep
beautiful
Questions & Answers about Ova žena je lijepa.
Why do we use ova here instead of ovaj or ovo?
The word for this changes to match the gender of the noun it points to. Since žena (woman) is a feminine noun, we use the feminine form ova. If we were talking about a masculine noun, we would use ovaj, and for a neuter noun, ovo.
Why does the adjective lijepa end in -a?
Adjectives in Croatian have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because žena is a feminine noun, the base adjective lijep (beautiful) gets the feminine ending -a to become lijepa. Notice how ova, žena, and lijepa all share the same -a ending, making them match perfectly!
Why does the verb je come after Ova žena?
The word je (is) is a special type of short word called an enclitic. Enclitics can never be the very first word in a sentence. They usually jump to the second position. Here, the whole phrase Ova žena acts as the first block of information, so je tucks in safely right after it.