Breakdown of Zatim je direktor počeo sastanak.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
sastanak
meeting
direktor
director, manager (of a company)
početi
to begin
Questions & Answers about Zatim je direktor počeo sastanak.
Why are je and počeo separated by the word direktor?
In Croatian, the past tense is made of two parts: a helper verb (je) and the main action word (počeo). Because je is a 'clitic' (a short, unstressed word), it has a strict rule: it must go in the second position of the sentence. Since the first spot is taken by Zatim (Next), je jumps into the second spot, leaving počeo for later in the sentence.
Does počeo change based on who is doing the action?
Yes! The main verb in the past tense (the l-participle) must match the gender and number of the subject. Because direktor is a masculine noun, the verb takes the masculine singular ending -o. If it had been a female director (direktorica), the verb would be počela.
What would the sentence look like if we started it with direktor instead of zatim?
If you start the sentence with Direktor, the helper verb je still must stay in the strict second position. The sentence would become: Direktor je zatim počeo sastanak.
Why doesn't the direct object sastanak (meeting) have a special accusative ending?
It is actually in the accusative case (the direct object form), but it just happens to look identical to the dictionary form. For masculine nouns that represent lifeless things (inanimate nouns), the accusative form is exactly the same as the nominative form. If the director had introduced a person instead, the ending would have changed.