Policija danas stoji kod semafora i gleda nosi li svatko kacigu.

Today the police are standing by the traffic light and checking whether everyone is wearing a helmet.

Breakdown of Policija danas stoji kod semafora i gleda nosi li svatko kacigu.

• i: and
• danas: today
• nositi: to wear
• kod: by
• svatko: everyone
• stajati: to stand
• gledati: to look
• kaciga: helmet
• semafor: traffic light
• policija: police
• li: whether

Questions & Answers about Policija danas stoji kod semafora i gleda nosi li svatko kacigu.

Why does Policija take the singular verb stoji instead of the plural stoje?

In Croatian, policija is grammatically a singular noun (feminine singular), even though it refers to a group of people.

• Policija danas stoji… = The police are standing today…
  – Croatian: singular verb stoji
  – English: plural verb are standing

If you wanted a clearly plural subject in Croatian, you would say:

• Policajci danas stoje kod semafora… = The police officers are standing at the traffic light…

Here policajci is plural, so you must use stoje.

Why is the present tense stoji / gleda used when English would say “is standing / is checking”?

Croatian does not have a separate grammatical “present continuous” form like English. The simple present tense of an imperfective verb covers both:

• habitual actions:
  
  • Policija često stoji kod semafora. = The police often stand by the traffic light.
• actions happening right now:
  
  • Policija danas stoji kod semafora. = The police are standing by the traffic light today.

So stoji and gleda here mean is standing and is checking / watching by context, even though grammatically they are just simple present.

Could I say danas policija stoji… instead of Policija danas stoji…? Does word order matter?

Both are grammatically correct; word order mainly affects emphasis.

• Policija danas stoji kod semafora…
  – neutral / mild emphasis on policija (who is standing)
• Danas policija stoji kod semafora…
  – more emphasis on danas (today, as opposed to other days)

Croatian word order is flexible. Elements you want to emphasize often move closer to the beginning of the sentence. However, the original order is perfectly natural and probably the most neutral.

What exactly does kod semafora mean, and why not just semafor?

Kod is a preposition that usually means “at, by, near (a place/person)”.

• kod semafora = by/at the traffic light (in the area right by it)

You can’t say kod semafor because kod always requires the genitive case after it, and the genitive of semafor is semafora.

Other possible, slightly different, choices:

• pored semafora = beside / next to the traffic light
• na semaforu = literally on the traffic light (e.g. “a sticker is on the traffic light”), usually not for standing people

So kod semafora is the natural way to say standing near the traffic light.

Why is it semafora and not semafor? Which case is that?

Semafora is the genitive singular of semafor.

The pattern is like:

• Nominative: semafor (basic “dictionary” form)
• Genitive: semafora

You need the genitive because the preposition kod always takes the genitive:

• kod + genitive
  
  • kod kuće (from kuća) – at home
  • kod prijatelja (from prijatelj) – at a friend’s place
  • kod semafora (from semafor) – by the traffic light

Does gleda just mean “looks”, or does it really mean “checks” here?

Literally, gledati means “to look, to watch”. But in context it often means “to watch in order to check / monitor / inspect”.

Here:

• …gleda nosi li svatko kacigu.
  is best understood as: “…is watching to see whether everyone is wearing a helmet.”

So gleda in this sentence has the sense of observes / monitors, not just a casual looks.

What is li in nosi li svatko kacigu, and why is it attached to nosi?

Li is a particle used to form yes/no questions and indirect questions like “whether” in English.

Basic pattern:

• Direct yes/no question:
  
  • Nosi li svatko kacigu? = Is everyone wearing a helmet?
• Indirect (embedded) question:
  
  • Gleda (to see) nosi li svatko kacigu. = He/they are watching whether everyone is wearing a helmet.

Li is a clitic: it usually comes right after the first stressed word in the clause.
In the present tense without an auxiliary, that first stressed word is typically the main verb, so we get nosi li, not li nosi.

Could I say da li svatko nosi kacigu instead of nosi li svatko kacigu?

In everyday speech, many people do say da li questions, but there are stylistic preferences:

• Nosi li svatko kacigu?
  – neutral, somewhat more standard, especially in writing.
• Da li svatko nosi kacigu?
  – common in casual speech; might be seen as less formal or less standard in Croatian (more typical in some other ex‑Yugoslav standards).

In embedded clauses like this one, native speakers overwhelmingly use the … verb + li … pattern:

• gleda nosi li svatko kacigu
  Much less natural:
• gleda da li svatko nosi kacigu (possible in some speech, but not ideal in careful Croatian).

So for good style in Croatian, it’s best to learn and prefer …nosi li… in sentences like this.

Why is the word order nosi li svatko kacigu and not svatko li nosi kacigu?

In standard Croatian, when you use li:

1. Li attaches to the first stressed element in the clause.
2. In a neutral sentence, that element is normally the finite verb.

So the canonical pattern is:

• nosi li svatko kacigu – verb + li
  • subject + object

Placing li after svatko (svatko li nosi kacigu) sounds wrong / ungrammatical to native speakers in standard language.
You can change word order for emphasis in many ways, but li almost always stays immediately after the main verb (or after je in je li…).

What is the difference between svatko, svaki, and svi?

They are related but not interchangeable:

• svatko

  • an indefinite pronoun = “everyone / everybody”
  • stands on its own:
    
    • Svatko nosi kacigu. = Everyone is wearing a helmet.

• svaki

  • an adjective = “every / each”
  • must modify a noun:
    
    • Svaki vozač nosi kacigu. = Every driver is wearing a helmet.

• svi

  • a pronoun = “all” (plural people / things)
  • often translated as “everyone” too:
    
    • Svi nose kacige. = They all are wearing helmets / Everyone is wearing helmets.

In this sentence, you want “everyone (individually, each person)”, so svatko is the most natural choice.

Why is it kacigu and not kaciga? Which case is being used?

Kacigu is the accusative singular of kaciga (helmet).
Kaciga is a regular feminine noun:

• Nominative: kaciga – subject
  
  • Kaciga je važna. – A helmet is important.
• Accusative: kacigu – direct object
  
  • Nosi kacigu. – (He/She) is wearing a helmet.

In nosi li svatko kacigu, kacigu is the direct object of nosi, so it must be accusative.

Could we say Policija danas stoje kod semafora i gledaju… since the police are many people?

Not with the noun policija.

• With policija (singular noun), you must use singular verbs:
  
  • Policija stoji… i gleda…

If you want plural verb forms, you need a plural noun, e.g.:

• Policajci danas stoje kod semafora i gledaju nosi li svatko kacigu.
  = The police officers are standing by the traffic light today and checking whether everyone is wearing a helmet.

So:

• policija – stoji, gleda (sg)
• policajci – stoje, gledaju (pl)

Why is there no comma before nosi li svatko kacigu?

The clause nosi li svatko kacigu is an object clause (it functions as the object of gleda: checking what? – whether everyone is wearing a helmet).

In Croatian, when an object clause directly follows the main verb (with conjunctions/particles like da, li, je li, što, tko etc.), there is normally no comma:

• Vidim da dolaziš. – I see that you are coming.
• Pitam se je li istina. – I wonder whether it’s true.
• Gleda nosi li svatko kacigu. – He/They are watching whether everyone is wearing a helmet.

So the sentence is correctly written without a comma before nosi li.

Is there any difference between stajati and stati, and why is stoji used here?

Yes, they are different verbs:

• stajati (imperfective) – to stand, to be standing (state, ongoing action)
  
  • present: stojim, stojiš, stoji…
• stati (perfective) – to stop, to come to a stop, to start standing (one-time event)
  
  • perfective: you normally use past/future forms, not a “continuous” present:
    
    • Policija je stala kod semafora. – The police stopped by the traffic light.

In your sentence we describe a current ongoing state (they are standing there now), so the correct choice is stajati → stoji:

• Policija danas stoji kod semafora… = The police are (standing) by the traffic light today…