Breakdown of Jutros su se iznenadili.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
jutros
this morning
iznenaditi se
to be surprised
Questions & Answers about Jutros su se iznenadili.
Why is the order su se and not se su?
This follows a strict ordering rule in Croatian. When you have multiple short, unstressed words (called clitics) in a row, verbal clitics like su (from the verb to be) must come before the reflexive pronoun se.
Why are both su and se grouped together right after Jutros?
In Croatian, clitics want to be in the "second position" of the sentence. Jutros (this morning) is the first chunk of information, so both clitics (su and se) gang up to take the second spot together, right before the main verb.
Why do we need the reflexive word se here? They didn't surprise "themselves"!
In Croatian, the base verb iznenaditi means "to surprise [someone else]". To say that you were surprised or got surprised, you must use it with se (iznenaditi se). It translates to "they were surprised", even though it structurally looks like "they surprised themselves".
How do we know this is about a group including men, and not just women?
The ending of the main past-tense verb tells us! Iznenadili ends in -i, which is the plural ending for a group of males or a mixed-gender group. If the group was entirely made of women, the sentence would be Jutros su se iznenadile.
Where is the word for "they" in this sentence?
It is left out! The helping verb su (they are) and the plural ending on iznenadili make it completely clear that the subject is "they". Adding the actual word for they (oni) isn't necessary unless you want to emphasize it, as in "THEY were surprised".
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