Questions & Answers about Ekser i tipl su pored čekića.
Why is su used here?
Su is the 3rd person plural form of biti (to be) in the present tense, so it means are.
The subject is Ekser i tipl = the nail and the wall plug/dowel, which is a plural idea because it refers to two things. That is why Serbian uses su, not je.
- ekser = nail
- tipl = wall plug / anchor / dowel
- su = are
So the structure is literally:
Ekser i tipl su ... = The nail and the wall plug are ...
Why are ekser and tipl in their basic form, but čekića changes?
Because ekser i tipl are the subject of the sentence, so they stay in the nominative case, which is the dictionary/basic form here.
But čekića comes after the preposition pored, and pored requires the genitive case.
So:
- ekser = nominative singular
- tipl = nominative singular
- čekića = genitive singular of čekić
This is very common in Serbian: prepositions often force a specific case.
What case is čekića, and what is its base form?
is .