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Questions & Answers about Ona se probudila kasno.
Why is there no "je" in this past tense sentence? Shouldn't it be "Ona se je probudila"?
You have spotted a very common exception in Croatian! In the past tense, the third-person singular helping verb je is usually dropped when it appears next to the reflexive pronoun se. So, instead of saying Ona se je probudila, native speakers just say Ona se probudila.
Could I change the word order and say "Ona probudila se kasno"?
No, because se is an enclitic (a short word with no accent of its own). In Croatian, enclitics must strictly go in the second position of the sentence. Here, the first position is taken by the pronoun Ona, so se must come immediately after it.
Why does the verb use the perfective form probudila instead of the imperfective budila?
Probuditi se is a perfective verb, meaning it describes an action that was completely finished in a single moment (she woke up). Buditi se is imperfective, which would describe an ongoing or repeated process (she was waking up). Since waking up late is a single, completed event here, we use probudila.
Does the word kasno end in "-o" because it is neuter?