Questions & Answers about Kiša je hladna ujutro.
It’s a classic copular sentence:
- Subject: Kiša (rain)
- Copula (to be): je (3rd person singular present of biti)
- Predicate adjective: hladna (cold)
- Time adverb: ujutro (in the morning)
So the pattern is Subject + je + Adjective + Time adverb.
Je is a clitic and must appear in “second position” within its clause. That usually means it comes right after the first stressed word or phrase.
- Correct: Kiša je hladna ujutro.
- If you front the time: Ujutro je kiša hladna.
- Incorrect: Ujutro kiša je hladna. (the clitic isn’t in second position)
Adjectives used as predicates agree with the subject in gender and number. Kiša is feminine singular, so the adjective is feminine singular nominative: hladna.
- Masculine: hladan
- Feminine: hladna
- Neuter: hladno
- Kiša: nominative singular (subject)
- hladna: nominative singular feminine (agrees with the subject as a predicate adjective)
- ujutro: an adverb (not a case form)
- je: verb (clitic form of “to be”)
- In standard Croatian, use the one-word adverb ujutro for “in the morning.”
- You may also see jutrom (instrumental used adverbially), which often implies a habitual meaning (“in the mornings”).
- Writing it as two words (u jutro) is not standard in Croatian for this sense. Note: Serbian commonly has ujutru (spelling difference).
Yes. All are fine and natural, with slight differences in emphasis:
- Kiša je hladna ujutro. (neutral)
- Kiša je ujutro hladna. (time comes earlier)
- Ujutro je kiša hladna. (time is fronted; remember the clitic je must be second)
Croatian has no articles, so kiša can be generic or specific depending on context. As-is, it most naturally reads as a general statement. To make it specific, add context or a determiner:
- Specific: Ova kiša je hladna ujutro. (This rain…)
- General/habitual can also be reinforced with adverbs like obično (usually).
Use an impersonal construction with a neuter adjective:
- Ujutro je hladno.
Use Je li + statement word order:
- Je li kiša hladna ujutro? You’ll also hear Da li je… in some regions, but Je li is the standard Croatian option.
Use nije (the negative of je):
- Kiša nije hladna ujutro.
Use jutros (“this morning”) and switch to the past tense, because “this morning” is normally already over:
- Jutros je kiša bila hladna. Using present with jutros sounds odd in standard usage.
Not in standard Croatian. You need the copula:
- Standard: Kiša je hladna ujutro. Dropping je can occur in headlines or some dialects, but you should keep it in normal speech and writing.
- kiša: “KEE-shah” (š = English “sh”)
- je: “yeh” (j = English “y” in “yes”)
- hladna: roughly “HLAHD-nah” (h is a voiceless sound, like German “Bach”)
- ujutro: “oo-YOO-troh” (r is tapped) Approximate IPA: /kiʃa jɛ xladna ujutro/
- hladna kiša = “cold rain” as a noun phrase (attributive adjective)
- kiša je hladna = a full sentence stating a property (predicate adjective)
Yes. Fronting the adjective emphasizes it:
- Hladna je kiša ujutro. (focus on “cold”) The clitic je still stays second.
- Comparative: Kiša je hladnija ujutro (nego popodne). (colder… than…)
- Superlative: Kiša je najhladnija ujutro.
- Intensifiers: jako/vrlo/baš → Kiša je jako hladna ujutro.
- Plural (episodes of rain): Kiše su hladne ujutro. (grammatically fine, but less common conceptually)
- Past: Kiša je bila hladna ujutro.
- Future (note the future clitic će is also second):
- Kiša će biti hladna ujutro.
- Ujutro će kiša biti hladna.