Breakdown of Ova cipela je žuta.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
cipela
shoe
žut
yellow
Questions & Answers about Ova cipela je žuta.
Why do Ova and žuta both end with the letter -a?
In Croatian, adjectives and pointing words like 'this' must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because cipela (shoe) is a feminine noun, the base word for 'this' (ovaj) changes to the feminine form Ova, and the base word for 'yellow' (žut) changes to the feminine form žuta.
How can I tell that cipela is a feminine noun?
In Croatian, you can almost always guess a noun's gender by looking at its last letter in the dictionary form. Because cipela ends in -a, it is feminine. If it ended in a consonant it would usually be masculine, and if it ended in -o or -e it would usually be neuter.
Why is the word je (is) in the middle instead of at the end?
The verb je is a special type of 'weak' word called an enclitic. Enclitics cannot start a sentence and naturally want to sit in the second position. Here, the entire phrase Ova cipela (This shoe) acts together as the first block of information, so je tucks in right after it.
Is cipela used for a single shoe or a whole pair of shoes?
Cipela refers to just one single shoe. In Croatian, you use the singular form when talking about one item of a pair. If you were talking about both shoes, you would use the plural form cipele, and the other words in the sentence would also change their endings to match!