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Questions & Answers about Sada jedemo doručak.
What does sada mean and can I use sad instead?
sada means “now.” sad also means “now,” but sad is more colloquial and common in spoken Croatian. sada is neutral and fits equally well in formal writing or speech.
Why is the verb jedemo used here, and what does it indicate?
jedemo is the present tense, first-person plural form of the verb jesti (“to eat”). It literally means “we eat,” but in Croatian the present tense covers both English “we eat” (habitually) and “we are eating” (right now).
Why don’t we include the pronoun mi for “we” before jedemo?
Croatian is a pro-drop (null-subject) language: the verb ending -emo already tells you it’s first-person plural (“we”). You can add mi for emphasis—mi jedemo would stress “we (and not someone else) are eating”—but it’s not required.
What case is doručak in, and why doesn’t its form change as an object?
doručak (“breakfast”) is the direct object of jedemo, so it’s in the accusative case. As a masculine inanimate noun, its singular accusative form is identical to its nominative form, which is why you don’t see any ending change.
Is there a distinction in Croatian between “we eat breakfast” (habitually) and “we are eating breakfast” (right now)?
No separate continuous tense exists. The present tense covers both uses. You rely on context words like sada or upravo (“now,” “just”) to signal an ongoing action. For habitual meaning you might also add words like obično (“usually”):
• Obično jedemo doručak u osam. – “We usually eat breakfast at eight.”
Can I change the word order to Jedemo sada doručak or Doručak jedemo sada?
Yes. Croatian has relatively free word order. All these are grammatically correct, but emphasis shifts:
• Sada jedemo doručak. – neutral statement, adverb first
• Jedemo doručak sada. – more focus on the action “eating breakfast”
• Doručak sada jedemo. – emphasizes that it’s breakfast (not lunch or dinner) that we’re eating now
How do I turn this into a question—“Are we eating breakfast now?”—in Croatian?
You have two common options:
- Add the question particle li after the verb: Jedemo li sada doručak?
- Keep the same word order and rely on rising intonation: Jedemo sada doručak?
Both mean “Are we eating breakfast now?”