Breakdown of Dovraga, opet sam zaboravio ključeve!
ključ
key
zaboraviti
to forget
opet
again
dovraga
damn it! (mild expletive)
Questions & Answers about Dovraga, opet sam zaboravio ključeve!
Why is sam placed right after opet instead of after Dovraga?
Because Dovraga is followed by a comma, it sits outside the main grammatical clause. Enclitics (unstressed words) like sam must take the second position in their specific clause. The main clause begins with opet, making opet the first position and sam the second.
Why is the plural of ključ (key) ključeve instead of "ključove"?
Most short masculine nouns get an extra syllable in the plural, usually -ov-. However, if the noun ends in a "soft" or palatal consonant like č, ć, š, ž, j, or lj, it takes the -ev- infix instead. Since ključ ends in č, the accusative plural becomes ključeve.
What does the exclamation Dovraga literally mean?
It literally translates to "to the devil." It is formed by combining the preposition do (to or until) with vraga, which is the genitive case of vrag (devil). It is a very common, relatively mild exclamation equivalent to "Damn it!" in English.
There is no word for "my" here. How do we know whose keys were forgotten?
Croatian rarely uses possessive pronouns (like "my" or "your") when it is already obvious from the context that you are talking about your own belongings. The verb form sam zaboravio tells us that "I" did the forgetting, so it is naturally assumed they are my keys.
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