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Questions & Answers about Krađa je zlo.
How do I pronounce Krađa je zlo?
What is je here?
Why is there no word for the or a?
Croatian does not use articles like English the and a/an.
So Krađa je zlo can mean:
The exact English wording depends on context, but Croatian does not need an article here.
Krađa is in the nominative singular.
It is the subject of the sentence:
This is also the dictionary form of the noun.
Here zlo is also in the nominative singular.
With the verb biti (to be), Croatian often uses the nominative for both:
So:
That is why you get Krađa je zlo, not a different case.
Here it is best understood as a noun.
So the structure is basically:
Croatian also has adjective forms related to this idea, but in this sentence zlo functions as a noun.
Yes, but it means something slightly different in tone.
Zlo sounds stronger and more moral/philosophical.
Loša is more like bad.
Also note:
That is why it is loša, not loš or loše.
In Croatian, nouns have grammatical gender: masculine, feminine, neuter.
Krađa is a feminine noun. One clue is that it ends in -a, which is very common for feminine nouns.
This does not mean theft is female in any real-world sense. It is just grammatical gender.
Gender matters because adjectives and some other words must match it:
Yes, Croatian word order is more flexible than English, but not every version sounds equally natural.
The normal neutral order is:
You may also see other orders in special contexts for emphasis, but for a learner, Krađa je zlo is the best standard form to use.
In the present tense, Croatian usually does include the verb biti in normal statements like this.
So:
Leaving out je here would sound wrong.
You may notice omission of to be in some special styles, headlines, poetry, or other structures, but not in an ordinary sentence like this one.
Krađa is a noun meaning theft or stealing.
It comes from the verb krasti (to steal).
So there is a useful connection:
This is similar to English:
Yes. Zlo is a neuter singular noun.
A very common pattern in Croatian is:
So in this sentence:
That is perfectly normal, because they do not have to match in gender when both are nouns.
Gender agreement matters with adjectives, not in the same way with predicate nouns.
Not exactly.
To means that or it, so it refers to something already understood from context.
Krađa specifically names the subject.
It sounds neutral and standard, though the word zlo gives it a somewhat moral or weighty tone.
So it is perfectly grammatical and normal, but it sounds a bit stronger than a casual everyday comment like:
So Krađa je zlo is simple, correct, and slightly emphatic in meaning.