Policija puca.

The police are shooting.

Breakdown of Policija puca.

• policija: police
• pucati: to shoot; fire

Questions & Answers about Policija puca.

Why is policija followed by a singular verb, when English says the police are?

Because policija is a singular noun in Croatian. Grammatically, it is feminine singular, so it takes the singular verb form puca.

So Croatian says:

• Policija puca. = The police are shooting.

Even though English treats police as plural, Croatian treats policija as singular.

If you want to talk about individual police officers, you would use a plural noun, for example:

• Policajci pucaju. = The police officers are shooting.

What form is puca?

Puca is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb pucati.

So:

• ja pucam = I shoot / am shooting
• ti pucaš = you shoot / are shooting
• on/ona/ono puca = he/she/it shoots / is shooting

Here it agrees with policija, which is singular.

Does Policija puca mean The police shoot or The police are shooting?