Questions & Answers about Ne, oni nisu studenti.
How would you ask the yes/no question that leads to this answer?
Since this lesson is about je li questions, you might expect the question to start with exactly that. But because oni (they) is plural, we must use the plural form jesu li. So the grammatically correct question would be Jesu li oni studenti? (Are they students?).
Why is 'are not' written as one word (nisu) instead of two (ne su)?
The verb to be is special in Croatian. When making it negative, the word ne (no/not) merges directly with the verb. For the 'they' form, ne + su becomes nisu.
If a group of students has both men and women, do we still use oni?
Yes! The word oni is the masculine plural for 'they', but in Croatian, the masculine plural is always used as the default for mixed-gender groups. You only use the feminine plural one if the group is entirely female.
How do we know studenti is plural?
The singular word for a male student is student. In Croatian, most masculine nouns that end in a consonant simply add an -i at the end to become plural. Therefore, student becomes studenti.