Word
Pošiljatelj se predomislio ispred pošte.
Meaning
The sender changed his mind in front of the post office.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Pošiljatelj se predomislio ispred pošte.
pošta
post office
ispred
in front of
predomisliti se
to change one's mind
pošiljatelj
sender
Questions & Answers about Pošiljatelj se predomislio ispred pošte.
What role does the prefix pre- play in the verb predomisliti se?
The prefix pre- frequently denotes a transition, crossing over, or changing an action. Added to misliti (to think), it creates the meaning of altering your thought process or changing your mind. It is always used with the reflexive pronoun se.
Doesn't the word for "in front of" usually take the instrumental case? Why is pošte in the genitive?
You are thinking of the simple preposition pred, which takes the instrumental case for a static location. However, this sentence uses ispred. This is a compound preposition, and in Croatian, compound prepositions almost always take the genitive case. That is why the feminine noun pošta becomes pošte.
Could we put the reflexive pronoun se after the verb, saying Pošiljatelj predomislio se...?
No, that would be grammatically incorrect. The word se is an enclitic, meaning it is a "weak" word that lacks its own stress. In Croatian, enclitics must strictly occupy the second grammatical position in a clause. Here, the first position is the subject Pošiljatelj, so se must immediately follow it.
I have also heard the word pošiljalac used for a sender. Is there a difference?