Questions & Answers about Novi mobiteli su mali.
Why do novi, mobiteli, and mali all end in -i?
In Croatian, regular masculine nouns ending in a consonant, like mobitel, get an -i ending when they are plural subjects. The adjectives describing them, novi (new) and mali (small), have to match this masculine plural form, so they also end in -i.
How do we know to use the -i plural ending for mobiteli?
The plural ending depends on the gender of the noun. You can usually tell a noun is masculine if its singular form ends in a consonant. The singular form here is mobitel, which ends in the consonant 'l', so it is masculine and follows the regular rule of adding -i for the plural.
I've seen the word malo before. Is mali the same word?
Yes, they are different forms of the same adjective meaning small. You might remember malo from earlier lessons as the neuter singular form, or as an adverb meaning 'a little'. Here, we need the masculine plural form mali to properly match the noun mobiteli.
Could I put the verb su right after novi instead of after mobiteli?
Yes, you can! The word su is a clitic, which is a short, unstressed word that likes to sit in the second position of a sentence. It can either follow the entire first phrase, as it does here, or it can break the phrase up and go right after the very first word, making Novi su mobiteli mali completely correct as well.
Learn Novi mobiteli su mali and more in Croatian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free