Breakdown of Smatra se da su ove dionice vrlo sigurne.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
ovaj
this (m) / ova (f), ovo (n)
da
that (conjunction)
smatrati
to consider
Questions & Answers about Smatra se da su ove dionice vrlo sigurne.
Why does the sentence use smatra se instead of a passive form like je smatrano?
In Croatian, the reflexive pronoun se is frequently used with a third-person verb to create an impersonal or passive meaning, translating to "it is considered" or "people consider". This reflexive passive is much more natural and common than using the verb biti (to be) with a passive participle like je smatrano, which sounds very stiff and is rarely used in everyday speech.
Why is the verb su placed immediately after da?
The word su is an enclitic (a short, unstressed word), which means it must take the second position in its clause. Conjunctions like da usually count as the first position in their clause, so enclitics naturally attach right after them.
How would this sentence change if I wanted to say "They consider these stocks very safe" without using a da clause?
You would use the active verb smatrati (to consider) with the object in the accusative case and the describing adjective in the instrumental case: Smatraju ove dionice vrlo sigurnima. The construction in our example sentence (smatra se da...) avoids this complex case matching by simply putting the statement into its own subclause in the nominative.
The word dionice here means "stocks" or "shares". Does it have other common meanings?