Breakdown of Ovi hoteli su veliki.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
velik
big
hotel
hotel
Questions & Answers about Ovi hoteli su veliki.
How does the word hotel change to become plural here?
The singular word is hotel. Because it is a regular masculine noun ending in a consonant, you make it plural in the nominative case by simply adding -i to the end. That gives us hoteli. Even though it is a borrowed international word, it behaves exactly like native Croatian masculine nouns.
Why do ovi, hoteli, and veliki all end in the same letter?
This is a great example of agreement! In Croatian, words that point out or describe a noun must match its gender, number, and case. Since hoteli is a masculine plural noun, the word for 'these' (ovi) and the adjective for 'big' (veliki) both take the masculine plural ending -i to match it perfectly.
Could I place the word su right after Ovi instead?
Yes, you can absolutely say Ovi su hoteli veliki. The word su (are) is an enclitic, which means it is a short, unstressed word that strongly prefers the second position in a sentence. That second position can be right after the first single word, or right after the first complete phrase (Ovi hoteli). Both word orders are perfectly correct and common!