Breakdown of Htio sam doći, no nisam mogao.
moći
can
htjeti
to want (intent, will)
doći
to come, to arrive
no
but, however (formal)
Questions & Answers about Htio sam doći, no nisam mogao.
I notice the verbs end in -o (htio, mogao). Does this mean the speaker is male?
Yes! In Croatian, past tense verbs must agree with the gender of the speaker. Htio and mogao are the masculine forms. If a woman were speaking, she would change these to match her gender and say Htjela sam doći, no nisam mogla.
Why is the pronoun ja (I) missing from this sentence?
In Croatian, you usually drop subject pronouns like ja because the helping verbs already tell you who is doing the action. Here, sam and nisam clearly mean I. You would only add ja if you wanted to heavily emphasize that YOU wanted to come, as opposed to someone else.
Why does sam come after htio? Couldn't we say Sam htio doći?
You cannot start a sentence with sam. It is a clitic, which means it is an unstressed word that must take the second position in a sentence or clause. Since the pronoun ja was dropped, the main verb htio takes the first position to give sam a word to lean on.
I usually see ali used for but. Can I use ali here instead of no?
Yes, you can! No and ali both mean but and are completely interchangeable in this sentence. No is very common and flows well when linking two contrasting thoughts, so it is a great word to add to your vocabulary at this level.