Questions & Answers about Što je to večeras?
Why does je come immediately after Što?
The word je (is) is a clitic, which means it is a weak word that lacks its own stress. In Croatian, these clitics are strictly placed in the second position of a sentence or clause. Here, it naturally falls into that second slot right after the question word Što.
Could I change the word order and ask Što to je večeras?
No, that would sound unnatural. Because je is a clitic, its position is strictly locked to the second spot in the sentence. It cannot be pushed to the third spot by the word to.
Why do we use the neuter pronoun to for 'that' instead of taj or ta?
When you are asking 'what is that?' and you don't yet know what the thing or event is, Croatian uses the neuter form to as the default. You would only use the masculine taj or feminine ta if you were pointing out a specific, known noun that has one of those genders.
Is večeras related to the Croatian word for evening?
Yes! Večer is the noun for 'evening', but adding the '-as' suffix turns it into an adverb meaning 'tonight' or 'this evening'. You can see this exact same pattern with the words dan (day) and danas (today).