Lesson 05

Pitanja: Asking questions

There are two kinds of questions: questions with a question word (Where is Ana?) and yes/no questions (Is Ana here?). You already know most question words from lesson 3. For yes/no questions you use the long form of biti from lesson 4.

Questions with a question word

Question word	Meaning	Example	Translation
tko	who	Tko je to?	Who is that?
što	what	Što je to?	What is that?
gdje	where	Gdje je Ana?	Where is Ana?
kako	how	Kako si?	How are you?
odakle	where from	Odakle si?	Where are you from?
koliko	how much	Koliko košta?	How much does it cost?

After the question word comes the short form of biti, in second place, as you learned in lesson 4: Gdje je Ana? Odakle si?

Yes/no questions: long form + li

A yes/no question starts with the long form of biti, followed by the little question word li. Then comes the rest of the sentence. Only for he, she and it is the question simply Je li…?

Jesilong form+liquestion word+umoran?the rest

Person	Question	Example	Translation
ti	Jesi li…?	Jesi li umoran?	Are you tired?
on, ona, ono	Je li…?	Je li Ana ovdje?	Is Ana here?
mi	Jesmo li…?	Jesmo li tamo?	Are we there?
vi, Vi	Jeste li…?	Jeste li Vi učiteljica?	Are you a teacher?
oni, one, ona	Jesu li…?	Jesu li oni iz Hrvatske?	Are they from Croatia?

You rarely ask a question about yourself (Jesam li…?), so ja is not listed here.

Short answers

Short answers also use the long form: Jesam. (yes) or the negative: Nisam. (no). Note that you answer about yourself, so to Jesi li…? you say Jesam, and to Jeste li vi…? (you, plural) Jesmo. You can put Da (yes) or Ne (no) in front: Da, jesam. Ne, nisam.

Question	Yes	No
Jesi li umoran?	Jesam.	Nisam.
Je li on ovdje?	Jest.	Nije.
Jeste li Vi učiteljica?	Jesam.	Nisam.
Jeste li vi iz Belgije?	Jesmo.	Nismo.
Jesu li oni iz Hrvatske?	Jesu.	Nisu.

Did you know?

You sometimes also hear Da li si umoran? That form is mainly Serbian and Bosnian. In Croatian you say Jesi li umoran?

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