Word
Bojite li se pauka?
Meaning
Are you afraid of the spider?
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Bojite li se pauka?
Why does se come after li here? Could I say Bojite se li pauka?
No, you cannot. In Croatian, small unstressed words called clitics must follow a strict sequence. The question particle li always takes the very first spot in the clitic line. The reflexive pronoun se must come after it. Because of this rule, li pushes se further back, making Bojite li se the only correct order.
Why is there a se in this sentence at all?
The verb for being afraid in Croatian is bojati se. It is a reflexive verb, which means it always needs that little word se attached to it to carry its meaning. Without se, the verb simply feels incomplete.
Why is the word for spider pauka instead of just pauk?
The verb bojati se (to be afraid) requires the thing you are afraid of to take the Genitive case. For a regular masculine noun like pauk (spider), the Genitive ending is -a, which gives us pauka. You can think of it as being afraid 'of a spider'.
Where is the word for 'you' in this sentence?
The pronoun for 'you' is built right into the verb form bojite, which corresponds to vi (formal or plural 'you'). In Croatian, you usually drop the subject pronoun because the verb's ending already tells us exactly who is doing the action.