Breakdown of Jučer su se sastali s njim.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
on
he
jučer
yesterday
s
with
sastati se
to meet up
Questions & Answers about Jučer su se sastali s njim.
Why do we use njim instead of njega or mu for "him"?
Because of the preposition s (with). This preposition requires the noun or pronoun following it to be in the instrumental case. The instrumental form of on (he) is njim. So, "with him" translates to s njim.
Why is it s njim here, but sometimes I see sa instead of s?
The preposition "with" is normally just s. We only add the "a" (making it sa) when the next word starts with a similar sound (like s, š, z, ž) to make it easier to pronounce, or with certain short pronouns. Since njim starts with an "nj" sound, the plain s is easy to say. Just remember that "with me" is always sa mnom as a special exception!
Why is there a se in this sentence?
The verb here is sastati se (to meet up / to get together). It is a reflexive verb in Croatian, which means it must always be accompanied by the reflexive pronoun se (oneself). You can think of it literally as "They met themselves with him."
Why are su and se placed right after Jučer?
su (the helper verb) and se (the reflexive pronoun) are both "clitics" (small, unstressed words). Croatian has a strict rule that clitics must take the second position in a sentence. Since Jučer (yesterday) takes up the first position, the clitics immediately follow it.
Where is the word for "they" in this sentence?
It is left out! In Croatian, you don't need to say the subject pronoun if the verb endings make it clear who is doing the action. The helper verb su and the plural ending on sastali (met) tell us that the subject is "they". You could say Jučer su se oni sastali s njim, but leaving oni out is much more natural.
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