To je nepoznata osoba.

to be

Breakdown of To je nepoznata osoba.

• to: that
• osoba: person
• nepoznat: unknown

Questions & Answers about To je nepoznata osoba.

What does To je literally mean, and why do we start the sentence with To?

To je literally means That is / It is.

• to = that / it (a neutral demonstrative pronoun)
• je = is (3rd person singular of biti – to be)

In Croatian, to je is a very common way to introduce or identify something or someone you see or are talking about, similar to English That is / This is / It’s.

You could also hear:

• Ovo je nepoznata osoba. – This is an unknown person. (more like this one here, close to me)

But To je nepoznata osoba. is the most neutral and common way to say it.

Why is the verb je (is) placed after To and not at the beginning?

Croatian does not put the verb first in simple statements the way English sometimes can (e.g. Is that…? for questions).

The usual neutral order here is:

• To (subject) + je (verb) + nepoznata osoba (what it is)

So:

• To je nepoznata osoba. = That is an unknown person.

The verb je is a clitic (a short, unstressed form) and almost always appears in the second position in the sentence, which is why you don’t normally say:

• ✗ Je to nepoznata osoba. (wrong as a statement; might appear only in special structures or in poetry)