Word
Kasnio je autobus. Zbog toga sam kasnio na sastanak.
Meaning
The bus was late. Because of that I was late to the meeting.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Kasnio je autobus. Zbog toga sam kasnio na sastanak.
sastanak
meeting
autobus
bus
kasniti
to be late
zbog toga
because of that, therefore
Questions & Answers about Kasnio je autobus. Zbog toga sam kasnio na sastanak.
Why does the first sentence start with the verb (Kasnio) instead of the subject (Autobus)?
Both word orders are perfectly fine. Putting the verb first places a bit more emphasis on the action—the fact that it was late. Croatian word order is flexible, as long as the enclitic je (the short form of the verb "to be") stays firmly in the second position.
Why does the second sentence use toga instead of just to for "that"?
The preposition zbog (because of) always requires the noun or pronoun that follows it to be in the genitive case. Toga is the genitive form of the pronoun to.
In the second sentence, why does the enclitic sam come after two words (Zbog toga) instead of going in the strict second word position?
Enclitics usually go in the second position of a clause, but that position can be after the first word OR after the first phrase. Because Zbog toga (Because of that) functions as a single, inseparable unit of meaning, the whole phrase counts as the first position. Splitting it up to say Zbog sam toga is ungrammatical.
Why is sastanak (meeting) in the accusative case here, rather than the locative case?