Breakdown of Kina i kazališta su stara.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
i
and (additive)
star
old
kino
cinema
kazalište
theatre
Questions & Answers about Kina i kazališta su stara.
Wait, doesn't Kina mean China?
It does! The word Kina means China, but here it is the plural of the neuter noun kino (cinema). Because it is the first word in the sentence, it is capitalized and looks exactly like the country. The context of being paired with theatres makes it clear we are talking about cinemas!
How did kino and kazalište become plural here?
Both kino (cinema) and kazalište (theatre) are regular neuter nouns in the singular. Neuter nouns ending in -o or -e form their plural by dropping that last letter and adding -a. This gives us kina and kazališta.
Why does the adjective stara end in -a if it describes plural words?
It looks just like a feminine singular word, which is a common trap for beginners! In Croatian, adjectives must match the gender and number of the nouns they describe. Since kina and kazališta are neuter plural nouns, the adjective star (old) must take the neuter plural ending. That ending happens to also be -a, making it stara.
Why is the verb su placed after the whole "cinemas and theatres" phrase?
The word su (are) is a clitic, which is a short, unstressed word that usually jumps to the second position in a sentence. However, the phrase Kina i kazališta acts as a single, connected subject. The word su treats that entire phrase as the first block of information and places itself right after it.
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