The present tense in the Croatian language, interrogative
DO YOU think this is easy?

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If you have read our blog post on how to make the present tense of verbs in the Croatian language, the interrogative form of the present is a piece of cake. This is the form that we use to make yes/no questions (e.g. do you go, do they work). You just need to put the at the beginning of the sentence + the word LI after it. And that’s it! Yep, learning Croatian sometimes really is easy! 🙂

THE PRESENT TENSE, interrogative form
A-type I-type E-type
-ati -iti, -jeti “irregular” verbs
spavati raditi ići
Sg. 1. Spavam li (ja)? Radim li (ja)? Idem li (ja)?
2. Spavaš li (ti)? Radiš li (ti)? Ideš li (ti)?
3. Spava li (on/ona/ono)? Radi li (on/ona/ono)? Ide li (on/ona/ono)?
Pl. 1. Spavamo li (mi)? Radimo li (mi)? Idemo li (mi)?
2. Spavate li (vi)? Radite li (vi)? Idete li (vi)?
3. Spavaju li (oni/one/ona)? Rade li (oni/one/ona)? Idu li (oni/one/ona)?

For example:

Misliš li da je to dobra ideja? – Do you think that’s a good idea?
Imate li neki dobar recept za fritule? – Do you have some good fritule recipe?
Plaćaju li karticom ili gotovinom? – Are they paying by card or cash?
Putujete li u Hrvatsku ove godine? – Are you traveling to Croatia this year?
Pravi li tvoj djed svoje vino? – Does your grandpa make his own wine?

THE PRESENT TENSE, interrogative form

What happens when you drop the subject from the sentence? 

If you read our blog posts regularly, you might already guess that here – just like with any other verb, in any form (affirmative, negative or interrogative) and in any tense – you can drop the (ja, ti, Marin…) whenever it is clear from the context who the subject is. This is because the form of any verb, in any form or any tense, always tells us who the subject is.

For example:

Imaš li (ti) brata ili sestru? – Do you have a brother or sister?
Uzgajaju li (oni) masline? – Do they grow olives?
Čitate li (vi) vijesti iz Hrvatske? – Do you read the news from Croatia?

How many answers did you get right? 🙂

Learning Croatian continues! Next Tuesday we’ll learn about the grammatical cases (padeži) in the Croatian language. If you would like us to send you an email with the next Croatian grammar lesson, put your email address here.

If you want to learn Croatian online with a teacher one-on-one, don’t hesitate to book your free trial lesson here.

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