Breakdown of Ovaj dječak se nije sjetio ponijeti karte za kino.
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
kino
cinema
nisam
am not (nisi, nije, nismo, niste, nisu)
karta
ticket
Questions & Answers about Ovaj dječak se nije sjetio ponijeti karte za kino.
How do we form the negated past tense for "didn't remember" here?
To make the past tense negative, we combine a negative helper verb (nisam, nisi, nije, etc.) with the l-participle (the verb ending in -o, -la, -li). Because the subject Ovaj dječak (This boy) is "he" (third-person singular), we use the helper nije followed by the masculine participle sjetio.
Why is the reflexive word se placed before nije? Don't helper verbs usually come before se?
This is a very common trap! Normal, positive helper verbs like je or sam are weak, unstressed words (clitics), and they usually come before se. However, negative helpers like nije or nisam are stressed words, not clitics. Because of this, the weak clitic se has to jump ahead of nije to grab the "second position" in the sentence, right after the subject phrase Ovaj dječak.
Why is ponijeti (to bring) in its infinitive form?
Just like in English ("didn't remember to bring"), when you link two verbs together to express one idea, the second verb stays in the infinitive. The main conjugated verb is nije sjetio (didn't remember), so the action he forgot to do (ponijeti) just stays in the basic dictionary form.
Why do we say instead of just ?