Breakdown of Kad dugo sjedim, boli me noga, pa malo šetam u majici.
Questions & Answers about Kad dugo sjedim, boli me noga, pa malo šetam u majici.
Kad is just the shortened, more colloquial form of kada, and in this sentence they are interchangeable:
- Kad dugo sjedim…
- Kada dugo sjedim…
Both mean “when/whenever I sit for a long time…” and sound natural.
Dok usually means “while/as (something else is happening at the same time)”, and emphasizes simultaneity, not the condition:
- Dok sjedim, gledam televiziju. – While I’m sitting, I watch TV.
Here we want something more like “whenever I sit for a long time, then X happens”, so kad/kada is better than dok.
All of these are grammatically possible, but they differ in naturalness and nuance:
Boli me noga. – Most natural, default way to say “My leg hurts.”
- boli – 3rd person singular of boljeti (to hurt).
- me – dative clitic (to me).
- noga – subject (the leg).
Literally: “The leg hurts to me.”
Moja noga boli. – Literally “My leg hurts.”
- Grammatically OK, but in everyday speech it sounds a bit more emphatic or contrastive, like “It’s my leg that hurts (not something else).”
Moja noga me boli. – Also correct and can be used, but the possessive moja is often unnecessary, because the dative me already shows whose leg it is. It can sound a bit “heavier” or more emphatic than you usually need.
In everyday speech, for body parts, the most idiomatic pattern is:
Boli me + [body part in nominative]
Boli me glava. – My head hurts.
Bole me leđa. – My back hurts.
Because noga is the subject of the verb boli, so it must be in the nominative:
- noga – nominative singular (the leg)
- nogu – accusative singular (leg as a direct object)
In boli me noga:
- noga is the thing that hurts → subject → nominative.
- me is the experiencer, in the dative (to me).
Compare:
- Vidim nogu. – I see a leg. (nogu = direct object → accusative)
- Boli me noga. – My leg hurts. (noga = subject → nominative)
Me is the unstressed (clitic) dative form of ja (I), from the full form mene.
- ja – nominative (I, as subject)
- mene – genitive/accusative/dative full form
- me – short, unstressed clitic form used inside sentences
In this construction, the leg is grammatically the subject, not “I”. So ja (nominative) would be wrong.
The pattern is:
[something] boli + [dative of the person]
Boli me noga. – The leg hurts me.
Boli ga glava. – His head hurts. (The head hurts him.)
Bole nas leđa. – Our back hurts. (The back hurts us.)
So me = “to me”, marking who experiences the pain.
Yes, you can say both:
- Boli me noga.
- Noga me boli.
Both are correct and both mean “My leg hurts.”
The difference is a small shift in emphasis:
- Boli me noga. – more neutral, very common as a default.
- Noga me boli. – slightly more emphasis on noga (“the leg”), like “It’s the leg that hurts.”
In practice, both are widely used and acceptable in everyday speech.
Yes. Croatian uses the present tense in a very similar way to English for general, repeated, or habitual situations.
- Kad dugo sjedim, boli me noga.
Literally: “When I sit for a long time, my leg hurts.”
Meaning: Whenever I sit for a long time, this (habitually) happens.
You do not need a special tense or aspect word here. The combination of kad + present tense already expresses a general rule/repeated situation.
Other examples:
- Kad ne spavam dovoljno, umoran sam. – When I don’t sleep enough, I’m tired.
- Kad je ljeto, idem na more. – When it’s summer, I go to the seaside.
In this sentence:
- …boli me noga, pa malo šetam…
pa is a conjunction that can mean roughly “so / and so / and then”.
Nuance:
- i – simple “and”, often just additions:
Boli me noga i malo šetam. – My leg hurts and I walk a bit. (sounds like two facts listed) - pa – often suggests a mild result, consequence, or sequence:
Boli me noga, pa malo šetam. – My leg hurts, so I walk around a bit (as a reaction). - zato (pa) / pa zato – more explicit “therefore/because of that” type of consequence.
So pa here is like a light, conversational “so / and then”, connecting cause and reaction without making it very formal.
Both are possible and both can mean “I walk a bit / I walk for a little while.” The difference is mostly rhythm and slight emphasis:
- malo šetam – a bit more neutral here, describes what you do:
→ “I (then) walk a bit.” - šetam malo – can feel slightly more like you’re stressing how much you walk:
→ “I walk, but only a little.”
In many everyday contexts they are interchangeable. In this specific sentence, malo šetam is slightly smoother and more typical.
- šetam (from šetati) – to stroll, go for a walk, walk around, often somewhat leisurely or for exercise.
- hodam (from hodati) – to walk in a more neutral, physical sense (as opposed to running, standing, etc.).
In pa malo šetam, the speaker suggests walking around, strolling a bit, maybe to stretch the leg or relax. Saying pa malo hodam is understandable, but šetam sounds more natural for “go for a walk / walk about” as a deliberate activity.
Because u + locative is used for location/state (“in”), while u + accusative is used for motion into (“into”).
- u majici – locative → “in a T‑shirt” (state of being; what you are wearing)
- u majicu – accusative → “into the T‑shirt” (movement into the shirt, e.g. you put something into it)
Here, the meaning is “I walk around in a T‑shirt” (wearing it), so you use u majici (locative), not u majicu.
Other examples:
- Spavam u pidžami. – I sleep in pyjamas.
- Stavljam novac u majicu. – I’m putting money into the T‑shirt (e.g. into a pocket).
Croatian has no articles (“a” / “the”), so u majici can mean either “in a T‑shirt” or “in the T‑shirt”, depending on context.
- u majici – literally just “in T‑shirt”, i.e. wearing a T‑shirt.
If you really need to specify which T‑shirt, you use other words:
- u onoj majici – in that T‑shirt
- u svojoj majici – in my (own) T‑shirt
- u crnoj majici – in the black T‑shirt
But normally, u majici on its own is enough: it just tells you the person is wearing a T‑shirt.
In Croatian the verb endings already show the person and number, so the subject pronoun is usually dropped unless you want to emphasize it.
- sjedim = (I) sit / am sitting
- šetam = (I) walk / am walking
Adding ja is only needed for emphasis or contrast:
- Ja sjedim, a ti stojiš. – I am sitting, but you are standing.
- Kad ja dugo sjedim, boli me noga. – When I (in particular) sit for a long time, my leg hurts.
In your sentence there is no such contrast, so Kad dugo sjedim, boli me noga, pa malo šetam is the natural form.
With body parts (and close belongings), Croatian often omits the possessive adjective (moja, tvoja, njegova, etc.) and instead uses a dative pronoun to show who it belongs to:
- Boli me noga. – My leg hurts. (The leg hurts *to me.*)
- Boli te glava. – Your head hurts.
- Bolje mu je ruka. – His arm is better.
Adding moja is possible, but then it has extra emphasis or contrast:
- Boli me moja noga. – It’s my leg that hurts (not someone else’s / not my arm).
So in neutral, everyday speech, Boli me noga is the most idiomatic way to say “My leg hurts.”