Breakdown of Danas me boli ruka, pa malo šetam u parku.
u
in
danas
today
park
park
me
me (accusative short form)
Questions & Answers about Danas me boli ruka, pa malo šetam u parku.
Why is me before boli, and not after it?
Me is an unstressed pronoun (a clitic). In Croatian, clitics normally stand in the second position in the clause, after the first stressed word or phrase.
- The first stressed word is Danas, so the clitic me has to come right after it:
- Danas me boli ruka.
If you remove Danas, then boli becomes the first stressed word, and you get:
- Boli me ruka.
(still correct, and very common)
So the position of me is determined by the clitic rule, not by English-like word order.
What case is me, and what does it literally mean here?
Me is the unstressed accusative form of ja (I).
Literally, the structure boli me ruka can be felt as:
- Ruka (the arm) boli (hurts) me (me)
→ “The arm hurts me.”
You do not need to say moja ruka (“my arm”) here, because Croatian often uses a pronoun + body part to imply possession (more on that in another question).
Why is it ruka and not ruku? Shouldn’t the hurting thing be in some other case?