German to Croatian: form the question around its verb rather than adding je li everywhere
A German question asks for a decision, not an assertion
The German IDS grammar distinguishes a yes-or-no question from a statement of the event. Its example Hat Ullrich das Zeitfahren gewonnen? asks the listener to decide whether the proposition holds. The question does not establish the victory as a fact merely by mentioning it.
When translating an enquiry into Croatian, preserve that unresolved status. A customer asking whether somebody can help has not yet received an offer of help. A coordinator asking whether guests arrived has not confirmed their arrival. The target must retain what remains to be answered as well as the vocabulary for the activity.
The German source may make the question apparent through its opening finite verb. Croatian standard guidance requires attention to its own question construction rather than copying that opening or adding one fixed introductory phrase to every translated clause.
Je li is not a universal question prefix
The Institute for Croatian’s syntax guide explicitly warns against treating je li as a mechanical replacement for every question opening. It gives Vidiš li ga? and Možeš li mi pomoći? as appropriate constructions, while rejecting versions that insert je li before the already finite verb.
The same guide distinguishes questions based on different auxiliary forms. Its examples pair Tužan si with Jesi li tužan?, and Radit će cijelu noć with Hoće li raditi cijelu noć? The grammatical work is not accomplished by pasting identical words in front of an otherwise unchanged statement.
These are recommendations for the standard construction taught by the cited resource, not a claim that every Croatian speaker uses one formula in all conversation. For a translated formal enquiry, however, they provide a concrete check: identify the predicate, then assess the appropriate verb-and-li pattern instead of assuming every question needs je.
A reported enquiry still contains something unknown
The Croatian guide applies its question rules to indirect questions as well. It illustrates a report that a woman asked whether somebody could help her, keeping the relevant question pattern inside the reported clause. Moving an enquiry into a report does not make its content a confirmed event.
In an original German service exchange, compare a direct request for help with a colleague’s later report that the customer asked about help. The colleague reports an enquiry; the colleague does not thereby report that help was provided. A translation that turns the embedded question into an affirmative clause can change the service record.
Check the Croatian message in two stages. First, establish whether it directly asks the recipient or reports somebody else’s question. Second, verify that the target construction still leaves the intended information unresolved. The person asking, the person asked and the person who may help need not all be the same.
A question mark alone cannot repair the wrong internal verb pattern, and a well-formed li construction cannot repair a changed participant or a confirmed event substituted for an enquiry. The useful result preserves both Croatian grammar and the German message’s actual information gap.
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