brinuti (se) / pobrinuti se (to worry / take care) | Croatian Grammar

Brinuti (se) covers two closely related ideas English keeps apart: "to worry" (the anxious feeling) and "to take care of" (the active looking-after). Both senses live in the reflexive brinuti se. The reference point you must master is its government: brinuti se takes either o + locative ("be concerned about / look after") or za + accusative ("worry about / see to"). The perfective partner pobrinuti se locks in the "see-to-it" meaning. And the single most useful thing you can carry away is the everyday reassurance Ne brini! — "Don't worry!"

Aspect

The pair is brinuti (se) (imperfective — ongoing worry or care) and pobrinuti se (perfective — to see to something, get it sorted, take charge of it). The imperfective describes the continuous state of worrying or the habit of looking after someone: Brinem se za tebe ("I worry about you"). The perfective marks a single decisive act of taking care of a matter: Pobrinut ću se za to ("I'll take care of it / I'll handle it"). Note the meaning shifts slightly with aspect — the imperfective leans toward worry/concern, while the perfective pobrinuti se almost always means handle, see to, arrange.

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The bare brinuti (without se) exists but is bookish; in living speech the verb is reflexive — brinuti se. Treat the se as part of the verb. It clusters with the other clitics: Brinem se, Brineš li se?, Ne brini se.

Present tense

Brinuti is an e-class verb: the -nu- infinitive yields a present stem brin- plus the endings -em, -eš, -e, -emo, -ete, -u.

Person	Form (with se)	Meaning
ja	brinem se	I worry / I take care
ti	brineš se	you worry
on/ona/ono	brine se	he/she/it worries
mi	brinemo se	we worry
vi	brinete se	you (pl./formal) worry
oni/one/ona	brinu se	they worry

Brinem se za tebe, javi se čim stigneš.

I worry about you, text me as soon as you arrive.

Ne brine se ni za što, baš je opušten.

He doesn't worry about anything, he's so laid-back.

The l-participle

From the infinitive stem brinu-. The masculine singular keeps the u: brinuo.

Gender / number	brinuti (impf)	pobrinuti se (pf)
masculine singular	brinuo	pobrinuo
feminine singular	brinula	pobrinula
neuter singular	brinulo	pobrinulo
masculine plural	brinuli	pobrinuli
feminine plural	brinule	pobrinule
neuter plural	brinula	pobrinula

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle + se. With the imperfective the focus is the lasting worry; the perfective pobrinuti se reports that something got handled.

Person	Masculine	Feminine
ja	brinuo sam se	brinula sam se
ti	brinuo si se	brinula si se
on / ona	brinuo se	brinula se
mi	brinuli smo se	brinule smo se
vi	brinuli ste se	brinule ste se
oni / one	brinuli su se	brinule su se

Cijelu noć sam se brinula gdje si.

I worried all night about where you were. — feminine speaker, sustained worry, imperfective.

Već sam se pobrinuo za karte, ne moraš ništa.

I've already taken care of the tickets, you don't have to do anything. — perfective, the matter is settled.

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Watch the clitic order in the past: the reflexive se comes after the auxiliary sam/si but the 3rd-person je is normally dropped next to se, giving plain brinuo se (not *brinuo je se). With sam it's brinuo sam se, never *brinuo se sam.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive drops its -i before the clitic: brinut će se, pobrinut ću se.

Person	Futur I (pf, "I'll take care of…")
ja	pobrinut ću se
ti	pobrinut ćeš se
on/ona/ono	pobrinut će se
mi	pobrinut ćemo se
vi	pobrinut ćete se
oni/one/ona	pobrinut će se

Ti se odmori, ja ću se pobrinuti za večeru.

You rest, I'll take care of dinner.

Imperative

e-class imperative endings -i, -imo, -ite. The single most useful form is the negative imperative Ne brini (se)! — "Don't worry!" Note that, as everywhere in Croatian, the negative imperative strongly prefers the imperfective: you say Ne brini se (imperfective), never Ne pobrini se.

Person	Form	Meaning
ti	brini (se)	take care / mind
mi	brinimo se	let's take care
vi	brinite (se)	take care (pl./formal)

Ne brini, sve će biti u redu.

Don't worry, everything will be fine. — the everyday reassurance; 'se' is often dropped here in casual speech.

Pobrini se za to do petka, molim te.

See to it by Friday, please. — positive command uses the perfective for a one-off task.

Other forms

Passive participle: the imperfective brinuti has no everyday passive participle. The perfective gives the adjective zbrinut ("provided for, looked after") from the related zbrinuti — zbrinuta djeca ("children who are taken care of").
Present verbal adverb: brinući se ("worrying, while worrying"), found in writing.

Brinući se za sve oko sebe, zaboravila je na sebe.

Caring for everyone around her, she forgot about herself. — verbal adverb 'brinući se'.

Key uses and government

1. brinuti se za + accusative — worry about / see to

With za + accusative, brinuti se points to the person or thing you actively look after or that causes you concern. This is the more dynamic, hands-on reading.

Tko se brine za pse dok ste na putu?

Who looks after the dogs while you're away? — 'za' + accusative 'pse'.

Nemoj se brinuti za novac, to riješimo kasnije.

Don't worry about the money, we'll sort that out later. — 'za' + accusative 'novac'.

2. brinuti se o + locative — be concerned about / care for

With o + locative, brinuti se leans toward sustained, responsible care — the long-term looking-after of dependents — and toward "being concerned about" a topic. Brinem se o djeci ("I care for the children"). The o + locative pattern is the same topic-marking o you meet across the grammar; see locative: topic and other uses.

Ona se sama brine o starijoj majci.

She cares for her elderly mother on her own. — 'o' + locative 'starijoj majci'; long-term responsible care.

Tko se brine o sigurnosti podataka?

Who is in charge of data security? — 'o' + locative, the topic of concern.

The two prepositions overlap heavily and both are correct for "look after"; za + accusative feels a touch more active/colloquial, o + locative a touch more formal and topic-like. For the broader principle of verbs that lock to a preposition, see prepositional verbs.

3. pobrinuti se za + accusative — handle it

The perfective overwhelmingly takes za + accusative and means "see to, handle, arrange". This is the verb you want for promising to deal with something.

Pobrinut ćemo se za sve detalje vjenčanja.

We'll take care of all the wedding details.

4. Contrast with the dative-experiencer pattern

English "I'm worried" can tempt you toward the dative-experiencer machinery you learned for sviđati se ("be pleasing") or nedostajati ("be missing"). Resist it. Brinuti se is not a dative-experiencer verb: the worrier is the ordinary nominative subject, and the thing worried about hangs off a preposition (za / o). You say Ja se brinem ("I worry"), with ja as a normal subject — not *Meni se brine.

Roditelji se uvijek brinu, takvi su.

Parents always worry, that's how they are. — nominative subject 'roditelji', plain reflexive.

Common Mistakes

❌ Brinem se o tebe.

Case mismatch — 'o' demands the locative, so 'o tebi', not accusative 'tebe'.

✅ Brinem se za tebe.

I worry about you. — or 'Brinem o tebi' with the locative.

❌ Meni se brine za djecu.

This is not a dative-experiencer verb; the worrier is the nominative subject 'ja'.

✅ Brinem se za djecu.

I worry about the children.

❌ Ne pobrini se za to!

Aspect error — the negative imperative takes the imperfective: 'Ne brini se'.

✅ Ne brini se za to!

Don't worry about it!

❌ Brinuo je se cijelu noć.

Clitic order — 'je' drops next to 'se'; it's just 'brinuo se cijelu noć'.

✅ Brinuo se cijelu noć.

He worried all night.

❌ Pobrinut ću se za to. — but meaning ongoing daily care

Aspect mismatch — for repeated, ongoing care use the imperfective 'brinem se', not the one-off perfective.

✅ Svaki dan se brinem za njega.

I take care of him every day.

Key Takeaways

Brinuti se is imperfective (ongoing worry/care); pobrinuti se is the perfective ("see to, handle"), almost always with za + accusative.
It is e-class: brinem, brineš, brine, brinemo, brinete, brinu — and reflexive: the se is part of the verb.
Two governments: za + accusative (active worry / looking after) and o + locative (responsible care / topic of concern); they overlap.
Ne brini (se)! = "Don't worry!" — the negative imperative is imperfective.
It is not a dative-experiencer verb: the worrier is the nominative subject (Ja se brinem), unlike sviđati se or nedostajati.

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