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Questions & Answers about On pita koliko minuta imamo.
Do I have to say the subject pronoun On, or can I drop it?
You can drop it. Croatian is a pro‑drop language, so Pita koliko minuta imamo. is perfectly natural. Keep On only if you need to emphasize that it’s he (not someone else) who’s asking.
Why doesn’t the sentence end with a question mark?
Because it’s an indirect question embedded in a statement. Only direct questions take a question mark. Direct speech would be: On pita: Koliko minuta imamo? (In print you’d normally add quotation marks around the question.)
What case is minuta here, and why?
It’s genitive plural. With countable nouns, koliko is followed by the genitive plural: koliko minuta, koliko knjiga, koliko ljudi. (With mass nouns, koliko takes genitive singular, e.g., koliko vremena.)
Why isn’t it minute instead of minuta?
Because after koliko (for countables) you need the genitive plural. Minute is nominative/accusative plural; minuta is genitive plural. So: koliko minuta (correct), not koliko minute.
Is the word order in koliko minuta imamo fixed?
No. Common variants include:
- On pita koliko minuta imamo.
- On pita koliko imamo minuta.
- On pita koliko minuta mi imamo. They’re all grammatical; the differences are subtle and relate to focus. The first is the most neutral.
Why is the verb at the end of the embedded clause?
That’s a common (but not obligatory) pattern in embedded clauses. Since the subject mi is usually omitted, the verb often ends up at the end. You can also say koliko imamo minuta.
Can I say “how much time we have” instead of “how many minutes we have”?
Yes: On pita koliko vremena imamo. Here vremena is genitive singular because vrijeme (time) is a mass noun. Note that koliko works for both “how much” and “how many.”
How do I say “He asks how many minutes we have left”?
Two natural options:
- On pita koliko još minuta imamo. (adds još “still/left”)
- On pita koliko nam je minuta ostalo. (uses ostati “to remain”; note neuter singular ostalo and the dative clitic nam “to us”)
What’s the difference between On pita and On se pita?
- On pita = “He asks (someone).”
- On se pita = “He wonders.”
Example: On se pita koliko minuta imamo. = “He wonders how many minutes we have.”
How do I include the person being asked (e.g., “He asks us”)?
Use an object pronoun, typically in clitic position:
- On nas pita koliko minuta imamo. = “He asks us how many minutes we have.” Clitics (like nas, me, te, ga, je) usually appear in the second position in the clause.
What is the direct-question version?
Koliko minuta imamo?
Croatian doesn’t use a “do”-support verb; you just front the question word koliko and keep normal verb agreement.
How do I form an indirect yes/no question with pita?
Use li (or colloquially da li) or je li with the verb biti:
- On pita imamo li dovoljno minuta.
- On pita da li imamo dovoljno minuta. (frequent; more colloquial)
- With “to be”: On pita je li kasno.
What exactly do pita and imamo mean morphologically?
- pita = 3rd person singular present of pitati (“to ask”).
- imamo = 1st person plural present of imati (“to have”).
So literally: “He asks how many minutes we have.”
How would I say this in the past or future?
- Past: On je pitao koliko minuta imamo. (If he asked about an ongoing/now-relevant situation) or On je pitao koliko smo minuta imali. (if he asked about a past situation)
- Future: On će pitati koliko minuta imamo.
Note the auxiliary je/će sits early in the clause (the so‑called second position).
Is minuta always the word for “minute”? I’ve also seen minut.
In standard Croatian, minuta (feminine) is the norm. minut (masculine) is common in Serbian. You’ll understand both, but in Croatian you’ll normally say minuta.