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Learn Hardcore Croatian: Žena se želi udati. - The woman wants to marry.

Hardcore Croatian
/Spending a weekend at a music festival
/Žena se želi udati.

Žena se želi udati.

Word

Žena se želi udati.

Meaning

The woman wants to marry.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

Hardcore Croatian

Lesson

Spending a weekend at a music festival

Breakdown of Žena se želi udati.

to marry (of a woman)

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Questions & Answers about Žena se želi udati.

What does žena mean here, and what case is it in?

Žena is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

A useful extra point: žena can mean both woman and wife, depending on context. In this sentence, it is normally understood as woman.

What form is želi?

Želi is the 3rd person singular present tense of željeti, which means to want.

So:

ja želim = I want
ti želiš = you want
on/ona želi = he/she wants

Here it matches žena, which is singular:

Žena želi... = The woman wants...

Why is se in the sentence?

Se is there because the verb is udati se.

In Croatian, udati se is the normal verb meaning for a woman to get married / marry. The se is not optional here; it is part of the verb expression.

So learners should think of it as a whole item:

udati se = to get married (said of a woman)

It does not literally mean that she is doing the action to herself in the English sense. It is just how this verb is formed.

Does se belong with želi or with udati?

It belongs logically with udati because the verb is udati se.

However, in Croatian word order, short unstressed words like se often move near the beginning of the clause, usually after the first stressed word or around the finite verb. That is why you get:

Žena se želi udati.

and not usually:

Žena želi udati se.

So:

grammatically/meaning-wise: se goes with udati
position in the sentence: se appears earlier

Why is it udati, not udati se written together?

In Croatian, se is written as a separate word, even when it belongs to a reflexive verb.

So you write:

udati se
češlja se
zove se

not as one word.

This is normal Croatian spelling.

Why is it udati, not udavati?

This is an aspect question.

udati se is perfective
udavati se is imperfective

In this sentence, udati se is used because it refers to the action as a single completed event: getting married.

After željeti, Croatian often uses the infinitive that best fits the intended meaning. Here the natural idea is:

she wants to get married = one completed event

Udavati se would usually suggest something repeated, ongoing, or habitual, so it would not fit this simple sentence well.

Why is it udati se and not oženiti se?

Croatian uses different verbs depending on whether the person getting married is a woman or a man:

udati se = for a woman to get married
oženiti se = for a man to get married

So:

Žena se želi udati. = The woman wants to get married.
Muškarac se želi oženiti. = The man wants to get married.

This is a very common thing for English speakers to notice, because English normally uses the same expression for both.

Why do we use an infinitive after želi?

After željeti, Croatian commonly uses the infinitive when the same person does both actions.

Here, the woman is:

wanting
getting married

So the infinitive is natural:

Žena se želi udati.

This is similar to English:

She wants to leave
She wants to study
She wants to get married

In standard Croatian, this infinitive structure is especially natural after željeti.

Could the sentence also be Žena želi se udati?

That is generally not the standard word order.

The normal form is:

Žena se želi udati.

Croatian clitics such as se usually cannot just stay wherever you want. They tend to appear in a fixed early position in the clause. That is why se comes before želi udati in this sentence.

So the best version to learn is:

Žena se želi udati.

Can the subject be omitted?

Yes. Croatian often drops the subject when it is clear from context.

So you could also say:

Želi se udati.

This still means She wants to get married or The woman wants to get married, depending on context.

The full sentence with žena is useful when you want to make the subject explicit.

How is ž pronounced in Žena and želi?

Ž is pronounced like the s in measure or the g in genre for many English speakers.

So:

Žena
želi

both begin with that zh sound.

A rough pronunciation guide:

Žena ≈ ZHE-na
želi ≈ ZHE-li

Is this sentence literally The woman wants to marry herself?

No. Even though se often gets explained as oneself, that literal translation is misleading here.

In this sentence, se is simply part of the verb udati se, which means to get married for a woman.

So the natural meaning is:

The woman wants to get married

not:

The woman wants to marry herself

Is Žena se želi udati a natural sentence in Croatian?

Yes, it is a natural and correct sentence.

It is a standard way to say that a woman wants to get married. Depending on context, Croatian speakers might also use slightly different wording, but this sentence is perfectly normal and grammatical.

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