Reducing Clauses with Verbal Adverbs

A verbal adverb (Croatian glagolski prilog, a converb in general linguistics) lets you fold a whole subordinate clause down into a single non-finite form. Instead of Dok je šetao, razmišljao je ("While he walked, he was thinking"), you can write the tighter Šetajući, razmišljao je ("Walking, he was thinking"). English does something similar with its -ing participle (Walking home, he thought…) and its perfect participle (Having read the letter, she wept), so the construction is recognisable — but Croatian's rules are stricter, the register is markedly higher, and the trap of the dangling converb is the same one that bedevils careful English writers. The forms themselves are detailed on the present verbal adverb and past verbal adverb pages; here we focus on how to use them to reduce clauses, and how not to misuse them.

Two converbs, two time relations

Croatian has exactly two verbal adverbs, and they divide the labour by time relative to the main verb:

The present verbal adverb in -ći (šetajući "walking," čitajući "reading," smijući se "laughing") is built from imperfective verbs and expresses an action going on at the same time as the main verb. The past verbal adverb in -vši / -avši (pročitavši "having read," ušavši "having entered," vidjevši "having seen") is built from perfective verbs and expresses an action completed before the main verb. The aspect of the base verb is what determines which one you can form — a clean illustration of how aspect and time are bound together in Croatian.

Present verbal adverb: simultaneous, same-subject

Use -ći to compress a dok ("while") clause — or a "by …-ing" clause of manner/means — when its subject is the same as the main clause's. The converb sets the scene; the main verb carries the tense, person, and the real assertion.

Each of these unpacks into a dok-clause with the same subject: Dok je šetao… / Dok sam čitao… / Ako budeš učio…. The converb is simply the compressed, more elegant form — and crucially, it works only because the two actions share a doer.

Past verbal adverb: prior, same-subject

Use -vši / -avši to compress a clause whose action finished before the main one — typically a nakon što ("after") or kad ("when, once") clause — again with the same subject. It is the exact counterpart of the English perfect participle having …-ed.

The ordering of events is encoded by the converb itself: pročitavši unambiguously means the reading was over before the weeping began. You do not need nakon što or prije to make the sequence clear — the perfective converb does it.

The shared-subject requirement — and the dangling converb

This is the rule that governs everything above and the single thing most likely to go wrong. A verbal adverb has no subject of its own; like a person-less form, it silently borrows the subject of the main clause. Therefore the doer of the converb and the doer of the main verb must be the same. If they are not, you produce a dangling converb — the converb appears to attach to the wrong subject, and the sentence is wrong (or unintentionally comic), exactly as in English (Walking down the street, the building collapsed).

Now compare the broken version. If you want "Having entered the room, the guests greeted me," you cannot use the converb, because the enterer (I) and the greeters (the guests) differ. You must spell out a full clause: Kad sam ušao u sobu, gosti su me pozdravili.

Register: formal and literary

Verbal adverbs belong to written, formal, and literary Croatian. They abound in literary prose, essays, and careful journalism, where they tighten the syntax and lend an elevated tone. In everyday speech they sound bookish; conversation prefers the full dok / nakon što clause or simple coordination with i ("and"). A C1 writer uses converbs deliberately, for compression and style, and recognises them instantly when reading — but does not sprinkle them through casual dialogue.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• A verbal adverb (converb) reduces a subordinate clause to one non-finite form: present -ći for a simultaneous action (while / by …-ing), past -vši for a prior, completed action (having …-ed).
• Aspect decides the form: imperfective verbs yield the -ći converb, perfective verbs the -vši converb.
• The shared-subject requirement is absolute: the converb borrows the main clause's subject, so both actions must have the same doer. Different subjects → keep a full finite clause.
• A subject mismatch produces a dangling converb, wrong in Croatian exactly as in English (Walking…, the building collapsed).
• Verbal adverbs are formal / literary; use them to tighten written prose, not in casual speech.