Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Croatian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Mačke su male.
Why does Mačke end in -e?
Mačka (cat) is a feminine noun ending in -a. To make regular feminine nouns plural when they are the subject of the sentence, you change the -a to -e. So, mačka becomes mačke.
Why is the adjective male instead of mala or mali?
Adjectives must match the noun they describe in both gender and number. Since mačke is feminine and plural, the adjective also takes the feminine plural ending -e, giving us male (small).
Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?
Croatian does not have articles like "the" or "a". The single word mačke can translate to "cats" or "the cats" depending entirely on what makes sense in the context.
Can I start the sentence with su, like "Su mačke male"?
No, you cannot start a sentence with su. It is an enclitic, which is a short, unstressed word. A strict rule in Croatian is that enclitics cannot be the first word; they usually must take the second position in a sentence.