Vatrogasac će ugasiti požar.

The firefighter will put out the fire.

Breakdown of Vatrogasac će ugasiti požar.

• htjeti: will
• požar: fire
• ugasiti: to put out
• vatrogasac: firefighter

Questions & Answers about Vatrogasac će ugasiti požar.

What does će mean here?

Će is the future-tense auxiliary. In this sentence, it marks that the action will happen in the future.

So:

• vatrogasac = firefighter
• će ugasiti = will put out / will extinguish
• požar = fire

This is the normal way to form the Croatian future I tense:

• subject + će + infinitive

For example:

• On će doći. = He will come.
• Ona će raditi. = She will work.

Why is it će ugasiti, not just one future verb form like in English will extinguish?

Croatian often forms the future with two parts:

1. a present form of htjeti used as an auxiliary: ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će
2. the infinitive of the main verb

So:

• ugasiti = to put out / to extinguish
• će ugasiti = will extinguish

This is different from English, but very normal in Croatian.

With on / ona / ono and many nouns, you often see:

• On će ugasiti požar.
• Vatrogasac će ugasiti požar.

Why is the verb ugasiti and not gasiti?