Questions & Answers about Rijetko me boli glava.
Why is me placed right after the adverb rijetko?
Rijetko (rarely) is an adverb of frequency placed at the start of this sentence. In Croatian, short unstressed words called enclitics, like me, must always take the second position in a sentence. Because rijetko is the first word, me hops right behind it.
The translation says 'My head', but there is no word for 'my' (moja) here. Why?
In Croatian, you usually don't use possessive words with body parts if it is already clear who the body part belongs to. The sentence literally translates to 'The head rarely hurts me.' The pronoun me does the job of showing whose head is hurting.
Why do we use the accusative me instead of the dative mi (to me) here?
When talking about pain, the verb boljeti (to hurt) uses the accusative case for the person experiencing it. Since the head is doing the hurting, you are the direct object. Me is the short accusative form of ja (I).
Can I put the adverb rijetko somewhere else in the sentence?
Yes! You can say Glava me rijetko boli. Notice how me still stays in the second position, right after glava. Both versions mean the exact same thing, but putting rijetko at the beginning of the sentence puts a little more emphasis on the word 'rarely'.