Phase Verbs and Imperfective Infinitives
Phase verbs are verbs that describe the start, continuation, or end of an action. In Croatian, the most common phase verbs are početi (to start), nastaviti (to continue), and prestati (to stop).
Because these verbs focus on the phases of an ongoing process, any verb that follows them must be in the imperfective aspect. You will frequently use this structure to talk about changing weather conditions.
| The wind started blowing. | Vjetar je počeo puhati. |
| The wind continued blowing all day. | Vjetar je nastavio puhati cijeli dan. |
| Last night it started thundering. | Sinoć je počelo grmjeti. |
Starting and Stopping Activities
This same rule applies when talking about hobbies, habits, and daily routines. When you start or stop doing an activity, use a phase verb paired with an imperfective infinitive.
| Why did you start practicing football? | Zašto si počeo trenirati nogomet? |
| She stopped practicing because she has a problem. | Prestala je trenirati jer ima problem. |
| The child started drawing a cat. | Dijete je počelo crtati mačku. |
Phase Verbs with Reflexive Verbs
When the activity you are starting or stopping is a reflexive verb (a verb that includes se), the reflexive pronoun se follows the standard clitic placement rules. It will jump to the second position in the sentence, naturally separating from its infinitive.
| We started swimming in the sea. | Počeli smo se kupati u moru. |
| I want to start sunbathing early. | Želim se početi sunčati rano. |
Combining Phases
You can easily use these phase verbs to describe shifting plans or complex transitions, like one weather condition ending while another begins.
| We must start planning the trip. | Moramo početi planirati putovanje. |
| The sun stopped shining and the rain started to fall. | Sunce je prestalo sjati i kiša je počela padati. |
