Breakdown of Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali jeftine sutra.
Questions & Answers about Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali jeftine sutra.
Croatian often omits repeated material in the second clause. The verb to be (su) is understood from the first clause, so leaving it out is natural:
- Full: Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali su jeftine sutra.
- With ellipsis (very common): Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali jeftine sutra. Both are correct. The full version is a bit more formal/explicit.
Agreement. Ulaznice is feminine plural (singular: ulaznica), so the adjectives must match gender and number:
- fem. pl.: skupe, jeftine If it were masculine plural, you’d see skupi/jeftini, and for a single feminine noun you’d see skupa/jeftina.
Nominative plural. It’s the subject of the sentence, so the adjectives are also in nominative plural: skupe, jeftine. Note: for feminine plural nouns, nominative and accusative often look the same; here it’s nominative because it’s the subject.
Forms of the present tense of to be (sam, si, je, smo, ste, su) are clitics and usually sit in “second position” in the clause.
- Correct: Ulaznice su danas skupe.
- Correct: Danas su ulaznice skupe.
- Avoid in standard usage: Ulaznice danas su skupe. (su should come right after the first stressed unit: Ulaznice / Danas / Sutra, etc.)
Yes. Word order is flexible and used for emphasis:
- Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali jeftine sutra. (neutral)
- Danas su ulaznice skupe, ali sutra jeftine. (time up front)
- Ulaznice su danas skupe, ali sutra jeftine. (today/sutra just before the adjective) Meaning stays the same; placement changes what’s in focus.
Yes. Standard punctuation puts a comma before ali:
- …, ali … You also use a comma before a and no in similar coordination.
- a gives a milder, contrastive “and/while/but”: Ulaznice su skupe danas, a jeftine sutra.
- no is a bit formal/literary, meaning “but/however”: Ulaznice su skupe danas, no jeftine sutra. All three are correct here; ali is the default “but.”
- ulaznica (pl. ulaznice) = an entry/admission ticket (concerts, museums, matches).
- karta (pl. karte) = a ticket (often for transport), also “map” and “playing card.” In everyday speech people often say karte for event tickets too; ulaznice is the precise term for admission tickets.
skupo/jeftino are neuter singular or adverbs (“expensively/cheaply”). With a feminine plural subject (ulaznice), you need feminine plural adjectives: skupe/jeftine.
- Impersonal/neuter is fine with to: To je skupo. (“That is expensive.”)
- With “tickets”: Ulaznice su skupe.
Use the feminine plural comparatives:
- skuplje (more expensive), jeftinije (cheaper) Example: Ulaznice su skuplje danas, a jeftinije sutra.
Yes, they’re adverbs and don’t take a preposition:
- danas, sutra (no preposition) Compare: days of the week do take a preposition: u srijedu, u petak (“on Wednesday/Friday”). Don’t say u sutra or u danas.
In normal sentences, keep it: Ulaznice su skupe… Omitting the present-tense copula is typical only in headlines/notes:
- Headline style: Ulaznice skupe danas, jeftine sutra. So for full sentences, include su at least once.
Yes. It respects clitic placement (su in second position):
- Sutra su jeftine. In the full sentence you could say: Ulaznice su skupe danas, ali sutra su jeftine.
- j = English “y” (as in yes)
- c = “ts” (as in cats)
- e = “eh,” u = “oo,” a = “ah” Approximate pronunciations:
- Ulaznice: oo-LAZ-nee-tseh
- skupe: SKOO-peh
- jeftine: YEF-tee-neh
- danas: DAH-nahs
- sutra: SOO-trah
Yes, they still agree in gender/number/case.
- Predicative: Ulaznice su skupe.
- Attributive: Kupio sam skupe ulaznice. Both use feminine plural skupe to match ulaznice.
Use nego after a negation to mean “but rather”:
- Ulaznice nisu skupe danas, nego sutra. (“They aren’t expensive today, but rather tomorrow.”)
- Ulaznice nisu skupe, nego jeftine. (“They’re not expensive, but (rather) cheap.”) Without a negation, use ali/a/no.