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Oni su prijatelji.

Oni su prijatelji.
They are friends.
FromLesson 1inHardcore Croatian
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Breakdown of Oni su prijatelji.

biti
to be
oni
they
prijatelj
friend

Questions & Answers about Oni su prijatelji.

What does Oni mean?
Oni is the masculine personal plural pronoun meaning they when referring to a group of males or a mixed-gender group. If you want to talk about a group of females only, you’d use One instead.
Why is the verb su used here, and not je or sam?

The Croatian verb biti (to be) has different forms for each person and number in the present tense:
• ja sam (I am)
• ti si (you are)
• on/ona/ono je (he/she/it is)
• mi smo (we are)
• vi ste (you pl. are)
• oni/one/ona su (they are)
Since Oni is third-person plural, the correct form is su.

Is the subject pronoun oni always necessary? Can you drop it?
Croatian is a pro-drop language, so grammatically you can omit oni because su already marks third-person plural. In practice, in very short sentences like Su prijatelji it may sound abrupt or poetic. Learners often keep oni for clarity, but in longer contexts you’ll hear just Su prijatelji or more commonly Prijatelji su if the subject is clear from context.
What case and number is prijatelji in?
Prijatelji is the nominative plural masculine form of prijatelj (friend). It appears after su as a predicate noun.
How would you ask Are they friends? in Croatian?

Informally, you can simply use intonation:
Oni su prijatelji?
For a more formal or unambiguous question, insert the particle li and invert the verb and subject:
Jesu li oni prijatelji?

How do you say They are not friends?

Add the negative particle ne before su, which combines to nisu:
Oni nisu prijatelji.

How do you pronounce prijatelji, especially the lj?

Lj is a single consonant, similar to the ‘lli’ in English million or the Spanish ll in tortilla.
Prijatelji is pronounced roughly pree-YA-tel-yee, with stress on the second syllable.

If the group is all female, how would you say They are friends?

Use the feminine pronoun and noun:
One su prijateljice.
Here prijateljice is the feminine plural of prijateljica (female friend). You can also drop one and say Prijateljice su.

Why are there no words for a or the in Oni su prijatelji?
Croatian doesn’t use definite or indefinite articles. Whether something is “a friend” or “the friends” is understood from context or can be made explicit with words like neki (some) or demonstratives (ovaj, taj), but there are no direct equivalents of a/the.

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