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Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 28 Asking Who and What 165 / 600

That’s very similar to English, where you ask in singular even if it’s obvious the

answer will be more than one person.

Another example: to ask about which body part hurts, you have to use što as the

subject, since body parts are subjects in such sentences, while the person feeling the

pain is grammatically the object (in A). Consequently, in questions, past forms must

be neuter singular, and in answers the body part is in N:

Što N te A boli? lit. ‘What hurts you?’ = Where does it hurt you?

2

— Zub N . A tooth.

Što N je boljelo Anu A ? lit. ‘What did hurt Ana?’ = Where did it hurt Ana?

— Ruka N . Hand/arm.

The word što is a pronoun, it cannot be attached to a noun. You cannot use it to ask

e.g. What movie are you watching?. For such purposes, Croatian uses another word,

adjective koji, explained in 57 Whose, What Thing and What Like.

The question-word što is used to ask for additional information about what

someone is, e.g. what profession:

Što N je Ivan N ? What is Ivan?

— Liječnik N . Doctor.

What about animals? For general animals, you should use što, but for animals you’re

familiar with (e.g. pets) tko is often used.

Recall that što is used for generic questions where we know the subject, but not the

verb:

(Ana N spava. Ana is sleeping.)

Što A Ana N radi? What is Ana doing? (lit. ‘working’)

— Spava. She’s sleeping.

For general questions what is/was going on – nothing is known – the following two

verbs are used (the first one is a bit colloquial)®:

dešavati («) se²

događati («) se²

go on, happen

For example:

Što N se događa ovdje? What is going on here?

Since Croatian has only one present tense, it’s very common to add the all-purpose

demonstrative to that after question words, usually before the verb, to stress that

you’re asking something present, ongoing right now, what or who can be seen:

Što A to Ana N radi? What is Ana doing? (right now)

Što A to radiš? What are you doing?

Šta A to radiš? (the same meaning, but colloquial) ®

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