Questions & Answers about Danas su ulice prazne.
Why do both ulice and prazne end in -e?
In Croatian, adjectives must match the gender and number of the noun they describe. The singular word for street is ulica, which is feminine because it ends in -a. To make feminine words plural in the nominative case, the -a changes to an -e, giving us ulice. The adjective must follow the same rule, taking the feminine plural ending -e to become prazne.
If the basic dictionary word for empty is prazan, where did the second a go in prazne?
That second a in prazan is what we call a fleeting a. It only exists in the masculine singular form to make the word easier to pronounce. As soon as you add an ending for a different gender or a plural, that a drops out. So, the feminine plural becomes prazne instead of prazane.
Why is the verb su (are) placed before the subject ulice (streets)?
The word su is an enclitic, which is a short, unstressed word that strongly prefers to sit in the second position in a sentence. Because the adverb Danas (today) takes the first spot, su naturally drops into the second spot right after it.
Could we change the word order and say Ulice su danas prazne?