Breakdown of Blagajnica ju je odmah uzela.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ju
her (accusative clitic)
odmah
immediately
uzeti
to take
blagajnica
cashier (f)
Questions & Answers about Blagajnica ju je odmah uzela.
Why is the pronoun ju used here instead of je for "it"?
The normal short pronoun for "her" or "it" (feminine) is je. However, the auxiliary verb here is also je (from biti). To avoid saying je je, Croatian changes the pronoun to ju. This is why we get ju je.
Wait, doesn't the auxiliary clitic normally come before the pronoun clitic? Why is the order ju je?
You are right that the auxiliary verb usually comes first in a clitic cluster (like in sam ga or smo ih). However, the 3rd person singular auxiliary je is the one big exception! It always drops to the very end of the clitic group, which is why it comes after the pronoun ju here.
How do we know the gender of the object "it" in this sentence?
We know "it" refers to a feminine noun because the pronoun is ju, which is the feminine accusative clitic. If the cashier took a masculine or neuter object, the pronoun would be ga instead. Examples of what she might have taken are kartica (card) or novčanica (banknote).
Could we use the imperfective verb uzimala instead of the perfective uzela?
Not naturally in this context. The adverb odmah (immediately) highlights a single, completed, and fast action. Because of this, the perfective verb uzeti (past tense uzela) is required instead of the ongoing or repeated imperfective form uzimati.
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