Breakdown of Počinivši zločin, optuženi je pobjegao.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
zločin
crime
pobjeći
to run away
počiniti
to commit
optuženi
the accused (m)
Questions & Answers about Počinivši zločin, optuženi je pobjegao.
How do we form počinivši and what exactly does it mean?
Počinivši is the past verbal adverb of the perfective verb počiniti (to commit). To form it, you drop the -ti from the infinitive to get the stem (počini-) and add the suffix -vši. It translates to "having committed" and is used to show that this action was completely finished before the main action (je pobjegao) happened.
Is zločin in the nominative case here?
It looks like it, but it is actually in the accusative case! Zločin (crime) is the direct object of the action počinivši. Because it is a masculine, inanimate noun (a thing, not a living being), its accusative form is identical to its nominative (dictionary) form.
Why does optuženi look like an adjective but act like a noun here?
Optuženi is originally a passive participle meaning "accused" (from the verb optužiti, to accuse). Just like in English, Croatian often uses adjectives and participles as nouns to describe people. The -i at the end is the definite masculine ending, so it specifically means "the accused [man]".
Why is the clitic je not in the second position of the whole sentence?
The introductory phrase Počinivši zločin followed by a comma creates a completely separate clause. The strict "second position" rule for the enclitic je restarts after the comma. Therefore, looking only at the main clause (optuženi je pobjegao), je is correctly in the second position right after the first word, optuženi.
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