Breakdown of Da smo jučer iskopali taj fosil, bili bismo sretni.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
sretan
happy
jučer
yesterday
taj
that (masculine)
bi
would (bi, bismo, biste)
da
if (in counterfactual conditionals)
iskopati
to excavate
fosil
fossil
Questions & Answers about Da smo jučer iskopali taj fosil, bili bismo sretni.
Why do we start this sentence with da instead of ako?
In Croatian, ako is used for real or possible conditions (like 'If it rains tomorrow...'). Because we are talking about an imaginary situation in the past that didn't actually happen (a counterfactual condition), we must use da followed by the past tense (Perfekt). Da smo iskopali means 'If we had excavated,' making it clear that we didn't actually do it.
What is the rule for the word order with smo in the first part of the sentence?
smo is an enclitic (a 'weak' word that cannot stand on its own and has no stress), which means it must take the strict second position in its clause. The conjunction da counts as the first position, so smo locks in right after it, pushing the time word jučer to the third spot.
Does bili bismo sretni mean 'we would be happy' or 'we would have been happy'?
It can actually mean both, depending on the context! Croatian uses the same conditional form (Conditional I) for both present results ('we would be happy right now') and past results ('we would have been happy yesterday'). The English translation provided is 'we would be happy,' but 'we would have been happy' is an equally valid translation of the Croatian.
Why does taj fosil look like it is in the nominative case when it is the object being excavated?
It is actually in the accusative case because it's the direct object of the verb iskopali. However, fosil is a masculine inanimate noun (a non-living thing). For inanimate masculine nouns, the accusative form is completely identical to the nominative form.
Why does the adjective sretni end in -i?
sretni (happy) describes the subject 'we'. The -i ending is the masculine plural form. In Croatian grammar, whenever 'we' or 'they' refers to a mixed group of men and women (or a group of only men), the masculine plural is always used as the default.
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