EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 26 Yes or No? 155 / 600
Conditionals; for imperatives, see 53 Giving Orders.)
________
® In Serbia and parts of Bosnia, affirmative answers using the verb biti (je² +) be in
the 3rd person can be also jeste (besides je). However, this additional stressed form
is not used when forming questions – it’s used only in answers and sometimes in
regular sentences, meaning roughly is really.
The way of making questions using da li... is considered standard in Bosnia and
Serbia, and it’s often considered (or was often considered) standard in Croatia as
well.
• Something Possibly Interesting
Most languages in Europe usually use short responses meaning yes and no; English
and Celtic languages are unique in preferring short answers with generic verbs (e.g. I
do, I am.)
Some people in Croatia hate other people using questions (and other constructions
derived from questions) starting with da li..., for reasons they are often unable to
explain (they usually claim it’s “not Croatian”). However, such constructions are very
common in speech.
• Examples
This song from 1970’s, Piši mi by Drugi način – still quite popular – nicely illustrates
various ways to ask yes/no questions: each verse uses another form! (It also uses a
couple of constructions and forms I haven’t explained yet; the proposition pored
beside requires the genitive case.)
I dal još svirate
And do you still play
noću pored rijeke G at night by the river
Sad je došlo lijepo vrijeme N Now nice weather has come
doći past-n
Pjevate li
Do you sing
A
Da li ponekad
one naše pjesme
Do you sometimes
those songs of ours
sretneš moju dragu A
Jel još uvijek onako lijepa N
come across my darling
Is she still so beautiful
sresti
Pita li za mene A
Does she ask about me
i dal me A čeka and is she waiting for me
1
(Fikret Kurtović)
You can listen to it on YouTube.
Note how there’s no ona she in the verse Jel još uvijek onako lijepa, but the
adjective lijepa is in the fem. N sing., and that’s enough: we know who he’s talking
about. We again see the form još uvijek.