Questions & Answers about Moja sestra se vratila iz škole.
Doesn't the past tense need the helper verb je for "she"? Why isn't it "Moja sestra se je vratila"?
You are exactly right that the past tense for he/she/it usually uses je (for example, Ona je radila). However, Croatian has a special rule: when the sentence has the word se, the helper verb je is dropped. So, instead of saying se je vratila, we just say se vratila. This rule only applies to je, not to other helper verbs like sam or su.
Why is the word se in this sentence at all?
In Croatian, the verb for "to return" or "to come back" is vratiti se. It is a reflexive verb, which means it always requires the word se (which acts like "oneself"). You can think of it literally as "My sister returned herself from school."
Why does the verb end in -la (vratila)?
In the Croatian past tense, the main verb acts a bit like an adjective: it must match the gender of the subject. Because the subject here is Moja sestra (a feminine noun), the verb gets the feminine singular ending -la. If the subject were a brother (moj brat), it would be se vratio.
Why is it iz škole instead of just iz škola?
The preposition iz (meaning "from" or "out of") always forces the noun that follows it into the Genitive case. For feminine nouns that end in -a, like škola, the Genitive case changes that final -a into an -e. This is why it becomes iz škole.
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