Word
Smatra se da je vrana vrlo pametna ptica.
Meaning
It is considered that the crow is a very smart bird.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Smatra se da je vrana vrlo pametna ptica.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ptica
bird
pametan
smart
da
that (conjunction)
Questions & Answers about Smatra se da je vrana vrlo pametna ptica.
Why is smatra se used here instead of a passive participle like je smatrano?
In Croatian, general impersonal statements like "it is considered," "it is said," or "it is believed" are almost always formed using the reflexive passive. You take the third-person singular of the verb (smatra) and add the reflexive pronoun se. True passive participles exist, but they are rarely used for this type of general, subject-less statement.
If I wanted to say "People consider the crow a very smart bird" without using a da clause, how would the cases change?
The verb smatrati (to consider) takes an accusative object for the thing being considered, and the instrumental case for what it is considered to be. So, you would say: Ljudi smatraju vranu vrlo pametnom pticom. In our example sentence, the da clause creates a brand new sentence with its own subject (vrana) and predicate (ptica) safely back in the nominative case.
Why does the verb je come right after da instead of after vrana?
The verb je is an enclitic, meaning it is an unstressed word that must strictly take the second position in a sentence or clause. The conjunction da acts as the first position of the subordinate clause, so je naturally locks into the spot immediately following it.
Could I use misli se instead of smatra se here?