smijati se / nasmijati se (to laugh)

Smijati se ("to laugh") is a reflexive verb with two surprises packed into it. First, what you laugh at goes in the dative, not the accusative — Smiju mi se means "they're laughing at me", with mi in the dative. Second, its present tense smijem se is a perfect homophone of smijem "I may / I'm allowed" from the unrelated verb smjeti — the only thing that tells them apart is the se. Get the se, the dative, and the perfective partner nasmijati se under control and you will sound natural in one of the most common social situations there is.

Aspect

Smijati se is imperfective — it describes laughing as an ongoing activity or a habit. Its perfective partner is nasmijati se ("to have a good laugh, to burst out laughing"), formed with the prefix na-, which here adds a sense of laughing one's fill. Use the imperfective for the process (Svi su se smijali — "everyone was laughing") and the perfective for the bounded event (Baš sam se nasmijao — "I had a real good laugh"). Prefix-based pairs like this are covered at pair formation with prefixes.

Present tense

Although the infinitive smijati looks like an a-class verb, the present is i-type: smijem se, smiješ se, smije se…. You cannot read it off the infinitive — you have to learn it, exactly as with bojati se.

The l-participle

Built on the infinitive stem smija-: masculine smijao, feminine smijala, neuter smijalo.

The perfective nasmijati se has the parallel l-participle nasmijao se, nasmijala se, nasmijalo se.

Perfect tense (perfekt)

Clitic biti + l-participle, with se in the cluster. In the third person, je is deleted before se: you say smijao se, never smijao se je. This je-deletion is automatic with reflexive verbs and is one of the most reliable tells of a fluent speaker — it is treated in full at perfect word order.

Future I (futur prvi)

The infinitive smijati drops its final -i before the clitic: smijat ću se.

Imperative

The i-present yields smij se (not smiji se), plus smijmo se, smijte se. In practice the most heard form is the perfective nasmij se ("give a laugh / smile for the camera") and the warning ne smij mu se ("don't laugh at him").

Conditional I (kondicional prvi)

bih-clitics + l-participle, with se in the cluster.

Other forms

• Passive participle: none — smijati se is reflexive and intransitive, so it cannot be passivised.
• Present verbal adverb: smijući se ("[while] laughing"), very common: Smijući se, otvorila je vrata ("Laughing, she opened the door").

Key uses and government

1. smijati se + dative — "laugh at someone/something"

The thing or person you laugh at goes in the dative, which is counter-intuitive for English speakers who reach for "at + object". This is the same dative that marks the indirect object generally, surveyed at dative with verbs. With a clitic pronoun, Smiju mi se = "they're laughing at me".

2. smijati se + na + accusative — reaction "to" something

A more colloquial alternative for laughing in reaction to something uses na + accusative. The dative tends to imply mockery; na is more neutral ("laugh at / over").

3. Just "laugh" — no object

Without an object, smijati se simply means "laugh", and the se is still obligatory: there is no non-reflexive smijati in this sense.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• smijati se (impf) / nasmijati se (pf) — the prefix na- makes the perfective.
• The present is i-type: smijem se, smiješ se, smije se, smijemo se, smijete se, smiju se — homophonous with smijem "I may" from smjeti; the se is the disambiguator.
• Government: dative of what you laugh at (Smiju mi se), or na
  • accusative for a neutral reaction.
• In the perfect, the 3sg je drops before se: smijao se, not smijao se je.
• Do not mix up smijati se "laugh" with smiješiti se / smješkati se "smile".