Breakdown of Svi smo se u djetinjstvu bojali kukaca.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
u
in, into
bojati se
to be afraid
sav
all (of a whole) / everyone, all (people) / everything
Questions & Answers about Svi smo se u djetinjstvu bojali kukaca.
Why is kukaca used instead of the accusative kukce?
The verb bojati se (to be afraid of) requires its object to be in the genitive case. Even though insects are the object of the fear, Croatian grammar dictates we use the genitive plural kukaca here instead of the accusative.
How is the genitive plural kukaca formed from the dictionary word kukac?
The nominative singular is kukac. In most forms, the second 'a' drops out (like in the nominative plural kukci). But in the genitive plural, that fleeting 'a' comes back to break up the consonant cluster, and we add the standard genitive plural ending -a, giving us kukaca.
Why are smo and se placed right after Svi instead of next to the main verb bojali?
Both smo and se are clitics (short words without their own stress). In Croatian, clitics must generally go in the second position of the sentence. The first position is taken by the pronoun Svi, so the clitics must immediately follow it, even though it pushes them far away from bojali.
Is the se here making the verb reflexive, meaning we were afraid of ourselves?
No, bojati se is an inherently reflexive verb. The se is just a mandatory part of the verb itself and doesn't mean oneself in this context. You must always include se when saying you fear something.