Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.

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Breakdown of Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.

• ali: but
• brat: brother
• rano: early

Questions & Answers about Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.

What does budilica mean exactly, and what gender is it?

Budilica means alarm clock.

• It is a noun, feminine gender (you can tell from the ending -a, which is very common for feminine nouns).
• The base verb is buditi (to wake [someone] up), so budilica is literally “the thing that wakes (you) up” → an alarm clock.

You would say:

• Ovo je nova budilica. – This is a new alarm clock.
• Gdje je moja budilica? – Where is my alarm clock?

Why is it zvoni and not something like zvoni se or another form?

Zvoni is the 3rd person singular present tense of zvoniti (to ring).

• budilica = subject (3rd person singular)
• zvoni = rings / is ringing

So Budilica zvoni literally = The alarm clock rings / is ringing.

You do not add se here; zvoniti is not reflexive in this meaning.

A few more forms:

• ja zvonim – I ring
• ti zvoniš – you ring
• on/ona/ono zvoni – he/she/it rings
• oni/one/ona zvone – they ring