Da li možeš da mi daš haljinu posle večere?

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Breakdown of Da li možeš da mi daš haljinu posle večere?

• moći: can
• mi: me
• večera: dinner

Questions & Answers about Da li možeš da mi daš haljinu posle večere?

What does Da li do at the beginning of the sentence?

Da li is a very common way to turn a statement into a yes/no question in Serbian.

So:

• Možeš da mi daš haljinu posle večere. = You can give me the dress after dinner.
• Da li možeš da mi daš haljinu posle večere? = Can you give me the dress after dinner?

It does not translate word-for-word very neatly into English; its job is mainly grammatical.

Why are there two da forms in the sentence: Da li and then da again after možeš?

They are doing two different jobs.

• Da li is a question marker.
• The second da introduces the verb clause after možeš.

In Serbian, after verbs like moći (can / be able to), it is very common to use:

• moći + da + present tense

So možeš da daš literally works like you can that you give, but in natural English it is just you can give.

Why is it možeš?