Questions & Answers about Automobil je crven.
Why is the adjective crven (red) used here instead of crvena or crveno?
How do I know that automobil is a masculine noun?
By looking at its ending! In Croatian, nouns that end in a consonant, like the l in automobil, are almost always masculine.
I usually hear people say auto instead of automobil. If I use that, is the car still masculine?
Yes! Auto is just the short, everyday version of automobil. Even though it ends in an o (which is normally a neuter noun ending), it is a special exception and remains masculine. You can absolutely say Auto je crven.
Could I change the word order and put je at the end of the sentence?
No, you cannot say Automobil crven je. The word je (is) is an enclitic, which is a short, unstressed word. A strict rule in Croatian is that these short words must go in the second position of the sentence, right after the first word.
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