Vođa govori kratko.

The leader speaks briefly.

Breakdown of Vođa govori kratko.

• govoriti: to speak
• kratko: briefly
• vođa: a leader

Questions & Answers about Vođa govori kratko.

Why does vođa end in -a if it means a male leader?

Because not every Croatian noun ending in -a is feminine. A small group of masculine animate nouns also ends in -a, and vođa is one of them.

So you can have:

• dobar vođa = a good leader (masculine)

If it refers to a woman, Croatian can still use vođa, and agreement may follow the person’s natural gender:

• dobra vođa = a good leader (female)

So the ending -a does not automatically mean the noun is feminine.

What case is vođa in here?

It is in the nominative singular.

In this sentence, vođa is the subject — the person doing the action of speaking — so nominative is the expected case.

• Vođa = subject
• govori = speaks / is speaking
• kratko = briefly

What exactly is govori?