Word
Uvijek su se bojali.
Meaning
They were always afraid.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
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Questions & Answers about Uvijek su se bojali.
Why do we say su se instead of se su?
In Croatian, little unstressed words called clitics have a very strict order when they appear together. The rule is that past tense helper verbs (like su) always come before the reflexive clitic se. The only exception to this rule is the 3rd-person singular helper je, which comes after se.
Why are su and se placed right after Uvijek?
Clitics are "weak" words that cannot start a sentence. They must be placed in the second position of the sentence. Since Uvijek (always) is the first word, the entire group of clitics (su se) must immediately follow it.
Why is the word se in this sentence when English just says "were afraid"?
In English, "afraid" is an adjective, so you use the verb "to be". In Croatian, being afraid is expressed with a reflexive verb: bojati se. The se is a permanent, required part of this verb, so you must include it even though it doesn't translate word-for-word to English.
Where is the word for "they" in this sentence?
The word oni (they) is dropped because the other words already tell us who the subject is. The helper verb su is the "they" form, and the ending -li on bojali tells us it is a masculine plural group. You could say Oni su se uvijek bojali, but leaving the pronoun out is much more natural in Croatian.