Breakdown of Uhitivši optuženog, nisu se bojali zločinca.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
bojati se
to be afraid
zločinac
criminal
optuženi
the accused (m)
uhititi
to arrest
Questions & Answers about Uhitivši optuženog, nisu se bojali zločinca.
How do we get the form uhitivši, and what exactly does it mean?
Uhitivši is the past verbal adverb (glagolski prilog prošli) of the perfective verb uhititi (to arrest). It is formed by taking the infinitive stem (uhiti-) and adding the suffix -vši. It translates to "having arrested" and shows an action that was completed before the main action of the sentence.
Who is doing the arresting in this sentence?
The people doing the arresting are the same ones doing the fearing: "they". A strict rule for verbal adverbs in Croatian is that they must share the exact same subject as the main clause. Since the main verb nisu se bojali is in the "they" form, "they" are also the ones who arrested the accused.
Why does optuženi (the accused) change to optuženog here?
It is in the accusative case because it is the direct object of the action uhitivši (having arrested whom?). Because "the accused" acts as an animate noun (a living person), its accusative form looks identical to its genitive form, ending in -og.
Why is the word for criminal (zločinac) in the genitive case (zločinca)?
In Croatian, the reflexive verb bojati se (to be afraid) always requires its object to be in the genitive case. So, "afraid of the criminal" translates using the genitive form zločinca. Notice that the final "a" in zločinac is a "fleeting a" and naturally disappears when the word changes case.
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