Question 1

How does the word uznemiren work in this sentence? Is it part of a passive verb or just an adjective?

Accepted Answer

Uznemiren is originally the past passive participle of the verb uznemiriti (to upset). However, here you are seeing it used as a pure adjective to describe a psychological state (being upset). It functions exactly like an adjective, meaning it describes a state rather than an action being done to you, and it must agree with the subject. If a woman were speaking, she would say uznemirena.

Question 2

Why do we say sa sastanka instead of iz sastanka for "from a meeting"?

Accepted Answer

In Croatian, the preposition for "from" depends on the preposition used for going "to" or being "at" that place. Since you go to a meeting using na (idem na sastanak), you must return from it using s/sa plus the genitive case. You only use iz if you went somewhere using the preposition u.

Question 3

The dictionary word for meeting is sastanak. Why did the last 'a' disappear in sastanka?

Accepted Answer

This is a classic example of the "fleeting a". When adding the genitive ending -a to sastanak, the unstressed 'a' in the final syllable drops out to make the word easier to pronounce. This leaves us with sastanka rather than the clunky-sounding "sastanaka".

Question 4

Could I use the perfective verb dođem instead of dolazim here?

Accepted Answer

Not in this context. The word uvijek (always) clearly marks this as a recurring, habitual action. When talking about repeated actions in the present tense, you must use the imperfective aspect, which is dolazim.

Uvijek sam uznemiren kada dolazim sa sastanka.

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