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Questions & Answers about Gdje su restorani?
How do we form the plural of "restoran" in this sentence?
Restoran is a regular masculine noun. In Croatian, you can usually tell a noun is masculine because it ends in a consonant. To make these nouns plural, you simply add an -i to the end. So, one restoran becomes multiple restorani.
Why do we use su instead of je here?
Je is the singular form meaning "is", used when talking about one thing. Since we are asking about multiple restaurants (restorani), we have to use the plural form su, which means "are".
Could I change the word order and ask "Gdje restorani su?"
No, that would sound unnatural in Croatian. The word su is an enclitic, which is a short, unstressed word. A strict rule in Croatian is that enclitics usually need to be in the second position in a sentence. The question word Gdje takes the first spot, so su must jump in immediately after it.
How can I tell that a word like restoran is masculine?
Croatian simply looks at the spelling! Because restoran ends in a consonant (the letter n), it automatically behaves like a regular masculine noun. Therefore, it follows the standard rule of adding -i for the plural, regardless of where the word originally came from.