Breakdown of Mobilni podaci ne rade bez SIM kartice.
raditi
to work
ne
not
bez
without
mobilni podaci
mobile data
Questions & Answers about Mobilni podaci ne rade bez SIM kartice.
Why is podaci plural? In English, mobile data feels singular.
In Serbian, podaci is the plural of podatak (a piece of data / a datum / a data item).
So:
- podatak = one item of data
- podaci = data
Serbian normally treats data as a plural noun, so mobilni podaci literally means mobile data but grammatically behaves like mobile data items.
That is why the verb is also plural:
- Mobilni podaci ne rade.
- not Mobilni podaci ne radi.
This is one of those places where Serbian grammar does not match modern everyday English usage.
Why is the verb rade and not radi?
Because the subject, mobilni podaci, is plural.
- radi = works for singular subjects
- rade = work for plural subjects
Compare:
- Telefon ne radi. = The phone doesn’t work.
- Mobilni podaci ne rade. = Mobile data doesn’t work / Mobile data aren’t working.
Even though English often says data doesn’t work in the singular, Serbian follows the grammar of podaci as a plural noun, so the verb must be plural too.