Learn Hardcore Croatian: Most je dug.

Most can mean a bridge or the bridge, depending on context.
Definiteness is usually clear from the situation or from earlier sentences, not from a special word.

So Most je dug can mean either “The bridge is long” or “A bridge is long”, but in most real situations, context will tell you which one is meant (usually “the bridge”).

Why is the adjective dug and not duga or dugo?

Adjectives in Croatian agree with the noun’s gender, number, and case.

most is masculine, singular, nominative
The adjective dug has the forms:
- masculine: dug
- feminine: duga
- neuter: dugo

Since most is masculine singular in the nominative, the correct adjective form is dug.

Examples:

Most je dug. – The bridge is long. (masculine)
Cesta je duga. – The road is long. (feminine)
Selo je dugo. – The village is long. (neuter)

What case is most in here, and what about dug?

Both most and dug are in the nominative singular masculine.

In sentences of the type “X is Y (adjective)”, Croatian uses:

nominative for the subject (most)
nominative for the predicate adjective (dug)

So you do not change the case after je in this structure. It stays nominative: Most je dug, not anything like Most je dugog or dugim.

Can I change the word order, like Dug je most or Most dug je?

Word order in Croatian is fairly flexible, but there are strong rules for the verb je, which is a clitic and usually wants to be in second position in the clause.

Acceptable options:

Most je dug. – Neutral, most common.
Dug je most. – Also correct; slightly emphasizes dug (“long is the bridge”).

Incorrect or very unnatural:

✗ Most dug je. – Wrong position of je, it should be in the second slot.

So you can move most and dug somewhat for emphasis, but je must stay in its clitic position immediately after the first stressed word in the sentence.

Can the je be dropped, like in some other languages?

In standard Croatian, you cannot drop je in this kind of present-tense sentence.

Most je dug. – Correct.
✗ Most dug. – Wrong in standard language; it sounds like a fragment or note, not a full sentence.

You can drop the subject pronoun (e.g. you say Je dug. without On, for “It is long.”), but you cannot drop the verb je in the present tense of biti (to be).

How do I say “a long bridge” as a phrase, not a full sentence?

When the adjective directly describes the noun (as a phrase), it usually goes before the noun:

dug most – a long bridge

So:

Most je dug. – The bridge is long. (full sentence, predicate adjective)
Dug most. – A long bridge. (just a noun phrase, as in “I see a long bridge.” → Vidim dug most.)

Notice in both cases the form is still dug, because most is masculine singular.

What’s the difference between dug and dugačak?

Both roughly mean “long”, but:

dug is the shorter, very common basic form.
dugačak can feel a bit more descriptive or emphatic, like “quite long / longish” in many contexts.

You can say either:

Most je dug. – The bridge is long.
Most je dugačak. – The bridge is (quite) long / longish.

Grammatically, they behave the same way (they both agree in gender, number, case). Nuance is mostly stylistic or about emphasis.

How would I say this in plural or with other genders?

Change both the noun and the adjective to match in gender and number.

Plural masculine (bridges):

Mostovi su dugi. – The bridges are long.

Feminine singular:

Cesta je duga. – The road is long.

Feminine plural:

Ceste su duge. – The roads are long.

Neuter singular:

Polje je dugo. – The field is long.

Neuter plural:

Polja su duga. – The fields are long.

Note the verb also changes: je (is) → su (are) in the plural.

How do I turn Most je dug into a question or a negative sentence?

Question (Yes/No):

The most neutral way is:

Je li most dug? – Is the bridge long?

Spoken, you may also hear:

Je l’ most dug? – Colloquial contraction.

Negative:

You negate je by using nije:

Most nije dug. – The bridge is not long.

So the pattern is:

X je Y. → X nije Y.
Je li X Y? → Nije li X Y? (more formal or literary for negative questions)

How is Most je dug pronounced, and does g at the end stay g?

Approximate pronunciation (in IPA):

Most – /mɔst/ (like most in English, but with a more open o, and clear final t)
je – /je/ (like ye in yes)
dug – /duɡ/ phonemically

In actual speech, Croatian often devoices final voiced consonants, so the g in dug is usually pronounced closer to k:

dug ≈ /duk/ at the end of a sentence

Spelling stays dug, but your ear may hear something like duk when it’s at the end.