Learn Croatian: Oprostite, gospođo, odakle ste Vi? - Excuse me, ma'am, where are you from? formal

In written Croatian, capitalizing Vi shows that you are using the formal you to address a single person respectfully. If it were a lowercase vi, it would usually just mean the plural you (addressing a group of people).

We are only talking to one person (a lady). Why do we use ste, which is a plural verb?

When using the formal Vi, you must always use the plural form of the verb. Even though you are speaking to one single person, you use Vi ste instead of the informal ti si.

Why does the sentence say gospođo instead of gospođa?

When you are talking directly to someone or getting their attention, Croatian uses a special word form called the vocative case. For many feminine words ending in -a like gospođa, the ending changes to -o when you address them directly.

If I wanted to say excuse me to a friend, would I still use Oprostite?

No. Oprostite is the formal (and plural) form. If you were talking to a friend or someone younger where you use the informal ti, you would say Oprosti.

Could we just say odakle ste and leave out the ?