Breakdown of Jučer si mi obećao uslugu.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
jučer
yesterday
usluga
favor
mi
to me
obećati
to promise
Questions & Answers about Jučer si mi obećao uslugu.
Why do the little words si and mi come right after Jučer?
These short, unstressed words are called enclitics. In Croatian, they must group together in a cluster and sit in the second position of the sentence. Here, they take the spot right after the first word, Jučer.
Why is the order si mi and not mi si?
Enclitics follow a strict ranking. Auxiliary verbs (like si) always come before pronoun enclitics (like the dative mi). If we had an accusative pronoun enclitic here as well, the dative would come before it, following the golden rule of the enclitic cluster: verb first, then dative, then accusative.
Where is the word for "you" in this sentence?
It is built into the verb. The auxiliary verb si combined with the past participle obećao forms the past tense for "you promised". Because si already tells us who did it, the actual pronoun ti (you) is dropped unless you want to emphasize it.
Does obećao tell us anything about the person who made the promise?
Yes! The -o ending on obećao tells us the person who promised is male. If the speaker were talking to a female, the sentence would be Jučer si mi obećala uslugu.
Why does the word for favor end in -u (uslugu)?
The dictionary form of this noun is usluga. Because it is the direct object of the sentence, meaning it is the thing being promised, it takes the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative ending is always -u.
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