This proverb is a small masterclass in three Croatian things at once: how tko builds a "he who…" clause with no antecedent, how the reflexive se attaches to a verb and then must sit in second position in its clause, and how adverbs form their superlative. The line repeats the same verb twice with the se landing in a different slot each time, which makes it the perfect place to watch clitic placement in action. It is a confident B2 text — short, but every word is doing grammatical work.
The proverb
Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
He who laughs last laughs most sweetly; (he who laughs last laughs best).
Word by word
| Word | Meaning | Note |
|---|---|---|
| tko | he who / whoever | relative-interrogative pronoun heading a headless relative clause |
| se | (reflexive marker) | clitic part of smijati se; in 2nd position of clause 1 |
| zadnji | last | adjective used predicatively (m. sg.), "the last one" |
| smije | laughs | 3rd-sg present of smijati se; gnomic present |
| najslađe | most sweetly | superlative adverb (from sladak → slađe → najslađe) |
| se | (reflexive marker) | clitic of smijati se again; in 2nd position of clause 2 |
| smije | laughs | 3rd-sg present, repeated; the main clause's verb |
The literal order is "Who self last laughs, most-sweetly self laughs." Two clauses, the same verb smije se in each — but watch the se: in the first clause it sits after tko (tko *se zadnji smije), and in the second it sits after *najslađe (najslađe *se smije). The clitic doesn't stay glued next to its verb; it jumps to *second position in whatever clause it lives in. That is the single most important lesson of the line.
What it means and when to say it
The meaning is that the final outcome is what counts, not who is ahead in the moment — so don't celebrate too soon, because the one who triumphs in the end enjoys it most. It is the exact counterpart of English "he who laughs last laughs best (or longest)." The Croatian literally says "laughs most sweetly" (najslađe), which is a touch warmer and more vivid than the English "best." In register it is neutral and very common, used as a warning, a consolation, or a small gloating threat.
Use it when someone gloats prematurely, or to reassure yourself that an early setback need not decide the end.
Slavili su pobjedu na poluvremenu, ali tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
They celebrated victory at half-time, but he who laughs last laughs best.
Neka mu se sad, vidjet ćemo na kraju — tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
Let him gloat now, we'll see at the end — he who laughs last laughs best.
Ne brini zbog ovog poraza; tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
Don't worry about this defeat; he who laughs last laughs best.
Grammar focus 1: tko as the headless relative "he who"
Tko is normally the question word "who?", but here it heads a headless (free) relative clause — a clause that is its own antecedent. Tko se zadnji smije means "the one who laughs last / whoever laughs last," with no separate noun to attach to. The whole first clause functions as the subject of the main clause: it is that person who laughs most sweetly. This tko… (taj)… structure ("whoever… [that one]…") is the standard frame for proverbs about the kind of person who does X, and the taj ("that one") is usually left out, as it is here.
Note the spelling and the pairing. The Croatian standard form is tko (with the t-), distinguishing it from the regional/colloquial ko. Tko asks about and refers to people; its inanimate partner is što ("what / that which"), which heads the parallel structure for things (Što te ne ubije, to te ojača — "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger"). Choosing tko here tells you the proverb is squarely about people.
Tko rano rani, dvije sreće grabi.
He who rises early grabs two strokes of luck. (tko heads a headless relative)
Tko nema u glavi, ima u nogama.
He who hasn't got it in his head has it in his legs. (whoever lacks sense pays with effort)
Grammar focus 2: smijati se — the reflexive verb
The verb is smijati se ("to laugh"), and the se is an inseparable part of it — smijati se is what's called an intrinsically reflexive verb, where the se doesn't mean the laugher laughs at themselves; it is simply part of the verb's lexical form, the way English "to laugh" just is. You cannot drop it: on smije without se is wrong (or means something else); the verb to mean "he laughs" is on *se smije. Many everyday Croatian verbs are like this — *bojati se (to fear), nadati se (to hope), smijati se (to laugh), šaliti se (to joke) — and the se travels with them everywhere.
Don't confuse this se with the homophone se that means "oneself" in a true reflexive (pere se = "washes oneself") or the impersonal/passive se. Here it is purely lexical: it belongs to the verb and carries no separate meaning. What it does do grammatically is behave as a clitic — and that triggers the placement rules in the next section.
Djeca su se smijala do suza.
The children laughed until they cried. (smijati se — the se is part of the verb)
Nemoj mi se smijati, ozbiljno mislim.
Don't laugh at me, I mean it seriously. (smijati se used with a dative for 'laugh at')
Grammar focus 3: najslađe — the superlative adverb
Najslađe ("most sweetly") is the superlative of an adverb, and it is built in transparent layers. Start from the adjective sladak ("sweet"); the comparative is slađi / slađe ("sweeter / more sweetly"), formed with the comparative suffix that triggers jotation — the d + j fuses into đ, giving slađ- (this is why the spelling is slađe, with đ, not sladje or sladje). The superlative then simply prefixes naj-: naj- + slađe = najslađe. The adverbial form (used to modify the verb smije, "laughs how? — most sweetly") is identical to the neuter comparative/superlative of the adjective.
So the pattern is sladak → slađe → najslađe (sweet → more sweetly → most sweetly), and the same three steps build the superlative of nearly every adverb: brzo → brže → najbrže (fast → faster → fastest), dobro → bolje → najbolje (well → better → best, irregular stem). The naj- prefix is the constant signature of the Croatian superlative, on adjectives and adverbs alike.
On najbolje govori engleski u razredu.
He speaks English best in the class. (najbolje = superlative adverb of dobro)
Najbrže ćeš stići ako kreneš odmah.
You'll arrive fastest if you set off right away. (najbrže from brzo → brže → najbrže)
Grammar focus 4: se in second position — the clitic rule
Here is the structural heart of the proverb. Se is a clitic — an unstressed little word that cannot stand alone and cannot bear stress. Croatian clitics obey the second-position (Wackernagel) rule: they attach right after the first stressed unit of their clause, not next to the word they logically belong with. That is why the same verb smije se puts its se in two different places:
Clause 1: Tko se zadnji smije — se lands after tko, the first word. Clause 2: Najslađe se smije — se lands after najslađe, the first word.
In both, se obeys the rule "after the first element," even though that pulls it away from smije. Each clause counts as its own domain, with its own second position — so the clitic resets at the start of the second clause. If two or more clitics cluster (say se plus an auxiliary or a pronoun), they line up in a fixed internal order; here there is only the one clitic, but the placement principle is the same one that governs the whole cluster.
Jučer smo se vratili kasno.
We came back late yesterday. (the clitic cluster smo se sits in second position, after Jučer)
Bojim se da se neće sjetiti.
I'm afraid he won't remember. (each clause has its own second-position se: Bojim se… / da se…)
How this differs from English
Four contrasts stand out. First, the headless relative: English "he who laughs last" needs the dummy "he," while Croatian tko is self-sufficient — the clause is its own subject. Second, the inseparable se: English "laugh" is a bare verb, but Croatian smijati se drags its se everywhere, and that se then floats to second position. Third, clitic placement: English word order keeps function words next to what they modify; Croatian rips the clitic out and parks it after the first element, which feels alien at first and is the commonest source of unnatural-sounding sentences. Fourth, "sweetly" not "best": Croatian literally says najslađe ("most sweetly"), a vivid sensory image where English flattens it to "best."
Common Mistakes
❌ Tko zadnji se smije, najslađe se smije.
Clitic misplaced — se must sit in second position, right after the first word: tko se zadnji smije.
✅ Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
He who laughs last laughs best.
❌ Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe smije se.
Clitic at the end — se can't trail after the verb; it belongs in second position of its clause: najslađe se smije.
✅ Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
He who laughs last laughs best.
❌ Tko se zadnji smije, najsladje se smije.
Spelling error — the comparative/superlative of sladak has đ from jotation: najslađe, not najsladje.
✅ Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
He who laughs last laughs most sweetly.
❌ Ko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
Non-standard form — the standard Croatian relative for people is tko, not the colloquial ko.
✅ Tko se zadnji smije, najslađe se smije.
He who laughs last laughs best.
Key Takeaways
- tko heads a headless relative ("he who / whoever") about people; the matching taj is usually dropped. Standard form is tko, not ko; što is its inanimate partner.
- smijati se is an inseparable reflexive verb — the se is part of the verb and can never be omitted.
- se is a clitic and obeys the second-position rule: it sits after the first stressed word of its clause, not next to the verb — and resets in each clause (tko *se… / najslađe se…*).
- najslađe is a superlative adverb: sladak → slađe → najslađe, with jotation giving đ and naj- marking the superlative.
- Croatian says "laughs most sweetly" where English says "laughs best."
- Meaning: the final outcome is what matters — don't gloat too early.
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Start learning Croatian→Related Topics
- Interrogative Pronouns: tko, što, kojiA1 — Question pronouns 'who', 'what', 'which' and their cases.
- The SuperlativeA2 — Forming 'most X' with the naj- prefix.
- The Order Within the Clitic ClusterB1 — The rigid internal template, the je-goes-last exception, and je dropping before se.
- Reflexive Verbs (se-verbs)A2 — The four jobs of the clitic se on verbs — and why se is often just part of the verb.
- Proverb: Svaka ptica svome jatu letiB1 — A grammatical close reading of Svaka ptica svome jatu leti (birds of a feather flock together) — the distributive svaka with a singular noun and verb, the dative of goal svome jatu, the reflexive-possessive svoj, and the gnomic present leti.