Learn Croatian: Je li ovo jeftin hotel?

To ask a yes/no question in Croatian, you generally can't just put the "is" verb (je) at the beginning of the sentence by itself. You pair it with the tiny question particle li. Together, Je li works like "Is...?" to kick off the question.

Why do we use ovo (which is neuter) when hotel is a masculine word?

When you are first pointing something out and asking "Is this a...?", you use the general neuter word ovo ("this thing here") no matter what the noun's gender is. You would only use the masculine ovaj if you were saying something like "this hotel" (ovaj hotel).

Does jeftin change if we ask about something other than a hotel?

Yes! Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because hotel is a masculine noun, we use the masculine form jeftin. If you were asking about a cheap house (kuća, which is feminine), you would add an "-a" and ask: Je li ovo jeftina kuća?