Word
Bili bismo promislili i brzo postupili.
Meaning
We would have thought it through and acted fast.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Bili bismo promislili i brzo postupili.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
i
and (additive)
brzo
quickly
promisliti
to think through
Questions & Answers about Bili bismo promislili i brzo postupili.
Why does this sentence use two l-participles, bili and promislili?
The past conditional is formed by combining the standard conditional of the verb biti (bili bismo) with the l-participle of the main verb (promislili). Because the conditional of biti itself uses an l-participle (bili), you end up with two l-participles in the same phrase.
Why does the auxiliary word bismo come between bili and promislili?
The word bismo is an enclitic, meaning it is a short, unstressed word that must take the second grammatical position in a sentence. Since Bili takes the first position here, bismo naturally falls right after it, pushing the main verb promislili to the third spot.
Why isn't bili bismo repeated before the second verb, postupili?
When connecting two past conditional verbs with i (and), you only need to use the auxiliary components (bili bismo) once. They automatically carry over to the second verb (postupili), just as you would say 'we would have thought and acted' in English instead of repeating 'would have'.
What would this sentence look like if a group of women were speaking?