When telling stories, especially in formal writing, you often need to show that one action finished completely before the main action began. In English, we express this by saying "Having done [X], he did [Y]."
In Croatian, this is the past verbal adverb (glagolski prilog prošli). Because it describes a completed action, it is formed exclusively from perfective verbs.
Stems ending in a vowel
For most perfective verbs, remove -ti from the infinitive to find the stem. If it ends in a vowel, add -vši.
- sakupiti (to gather) -> sakupi- -> sakupivši (having gathered)
- potrošiti (to spend) -> potroši- -> potrošivši (having spent)
- shvatiti (to realize) -> shvati- -> shvativši (having realized)
If the verb has a reflexive pronoun like se, the pronoun follows the adverb as a separate word.
| Having gathered his tools, the miner took the pickaxe and went down into the pit. | Sakupivši svoj alat, rudar je uzeo pijuk i sišao u jamu. |
| Having gotten rich, he spent all the money on parties. | Obogativši se, potrošio je sav novac na zabave. |
| Having realized his mistake, he did not want to get rich again. | Shvativši svoju pogrešku, nije se želio opet obogatiti. |
Stems ending in a consonant
Verbs of motion ending in -ći (like doći or izaći) and certain irregular verbs have past stems that end in a consonant (e.g., doš-, izaš-). For these, add -avši to the past stem.
- doći (to come) -> doš- -> došavši (having come)
- izaći (to go out) -> izaš- -> izašavši (having gone out)
| Having come to the stream, he saw a certain big nugget in the water. | Došavši na potok, vidio je neki veliki grumen u vodi. |
| Having come out of the pit, the old miner sat next to the stream. | Izašavši iz jame, stari rudar sjeo je pokraj potoka. |
Your questions are stored by us to improve Elon.io
