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Ona je jutros rano doručkovala.

Ona je jutros rano doručkovala.
She had breakfast early this morning.
From Lesson 43:The past tense: l-participle (radio, radila)·Croatian

Questions & Answers about Ona je jutros rano doručkovala.

Why does the verb doručkovala end in -la?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb (the l-participle) must match the gender of the subject. Because the subject here is Ona (she - feminine), the verb takes the feminine singular ending -la. If the subject were masculine (like On), it would end in -o, making it doručkovao.
Wait, doesn't je mean "is"? Why is it translated as past tense here?
You are right that je usually means "is"! But to make the past tense in Croatian, you always need two parts: a helper verb (the short forms of "to be", like je) plus the action verb ending in an "l" sound (like doručkovala). Together, je ... doručkovala translates to "she had breakfast".
The word for morning is jutro. Why is it jutros here?
Jutros is a specific adverb that means exactly "this morning". You will often see this -s ending on time words to mean "this [time]", such as večeras (this evening) or danas (today).
Could I change the word order and say Ona jutros rano je doručkovala?
No, the helper verb je is a "clitic" (a short, unstressed word). It has a strict grammatical rule: it almost always has to sit in the second position in the sentence. Here, it must take the second spot right after the first word, Ona.

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