Breakdown of Prije nego što kreneš, molim te, spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu.
Questions & Answers about Prije nego što kreneš, molim te, spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu.
Prije nego što introduces a subordinate time clause meaning “before (something happens)”.
- Prije nego što kreneš = Before you leave / before you set off.
- It must be followed by a full clause with a conjugated verb (kreneš here).
You will also hear or see prije nego without što:
- Prije nego kreneš… – also used in everyday speech, generally understood, but many grammars and teachers will say prije nego što is more standard and clear in writing.
So:
- prije nego što
- full clause (recommended, standard).
- prije nego
- full clause (common, more colloquial-feeling in some contexts).
In Croatian, time clauses introduced by prije nego (što) (before), kad (when), čim (as soon as), etc. normally use the present tense even when they refer to the future.
So:
- Prije nego što kreneš… literally: Before you leave (present)…
but it is understood as before you will leave or simply before you leave – referring to a future action.
Using future tense here (prije nego što ćeš krenuti) is possible but sounds heavy, overly formal, or even unnatural in everyday speech. The present is the normal choice.
Both are possible but slightly different in nuance:
- krenuti (here kreneš) = to set off, to start moving (focus on the start of the movement).
- otići (here odeš) = to go away, to leave (focus more on leaving / going somewhere else).
Prije nego što kreneš… suggests “before you set off / before you head out (from here).”
Prije nego što odeš… would be more like “before you go away / before you leave (this place).”
In everyday conversation, they often overlap, and both are understandable. Here, kreneš is very natural because we often talk about “starting off” somewhere (e.g. leaving the house, heading out).
Molim te here is a parenthetical polite phrase, equivalent to “please” addressed to “you” (singular).
- Prije nego što kreneš, molim te, spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu.
= Before you leave, please, put away the books and put your mobile in the bag.
The commas indicate that molim te is not grammatically necessary for the sentence’s core meaning; it’s an insert for politeness, like:
- “Before you leave, please, put away the books…”
You can also move it:
- Molim te, prije nego što kreneš, spremi knjige…
- Spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu, molim te.
The meaning stays the same; only the rhythm and emphasis change slightly.
Yes, you can use just molim as “please”:
- Prije nego što kreneš, molim, spremi knjige…
Differences:
- molim te = literally “I beg/ask you,” but functionally “please (you).” It sounds a bit more personal or direct, clearly addressed to “you”.
- molim alone = a very common polite “please,” slightly more neutral and general.
Both are fine. In many contexts, molim te might feel a touch more intimate or insistent, especially between people who know each other well (family, friends).
Yes, both spremi and stavi are 2nd person singular imperatives (informal “you”).
spremi comes from spremiti (to put away, to tidy away, to store):
- infinitive: spremiti
- present stem: sprem-
- 2sg imperative: spremi = “put away / tidy away!”
stavi comes from staviti (to put, to place):
- infinitive: staviti
- present stem: stav-
- 2sg imperative: stavi = “put!”
So the sentence is giving two commands:
- spremi knjige – “put away the books”
- stavi mobitel u torbu – “put the mobile in the bag”
Croatian verbs often come in aspect pairs: one imperfective and one perfective.
- spremajati / spremati (imperfective) – ongoing, repeated, or general actions (to be putting away, to tidy regularly).
- spremiti (perfective) – a completed action (to put away once, to finish tidying).
Imperatives usually use the perfective when you want someone to finish an action:
- Spremi knjige. – Put away the books (and finish doing it).
- Spremaj knjige. – would sound like “Keep putting away books” / “(Be) putting away books,” focusing on the ongoing process; much less natural here.
So spremi is used because the speaker wants a single, complete action done before the person leaves.
Knjige here is in the accusative plural of knjiga (book).
- Nominative singular: knjiga – “a book”
- Nominative plural: knjige – “books”
- Accusative plural: knjige – form looks the same as nominative plural
Since spremiti is a transitive verb, its direct object goes into the accusative:
- Spremi knjige. – “Put away (the) books.”
So:
- The form knjige tells us “books” (plural) is receiving the action of putting away.
In Croatian, after prepositions like u and na, the case depends on movement vs. location:
- Accusative = motion towards / into something.
- Locative = being in / on something (static location).
Here we have motion:
- stavi mobitel u torbu – put the phone into the bag (movement into → accusative: u torbu).
If we were describing where something already is, we’d use locative:
- Mobitel je u torbi. – The phone is in the bag (static location → u torbi).
You could, but there is a nuance:
- mobitel (Croatia) = mobile phone / cell phone (the usual everyday word in Croatian usage).
- telefon = telephone in general (can mean landline or phone in a more general sense; in some contexts also mobile, especially in other ex-Yu regions).
In standard Croatian, for “mobile phone,” mobitel is the most natural, everyday word.
So:
- stavi mobitel u torbu – “put your mobile phone in the bag” (most natural in Croatia).
- stavi telefon u torbu – understandable, but could be interpreted as “put the (telephone) handset in the bag,” which is odd unless clearly a mobile phone.
Yes, Croatian word order is relatively flexible, as long as grammar rules (especially about clitics) are respected.
All of these are grammatically possible:
- Spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu. (original)
- Spremi knjige i mobitel stavi u torbu.
- Spremi knjige i u torbu stavi mobitel.
- Mobitel stavi u torbu i spremi knjige.
Differences:
- The basic meaning is the same: two actions—put away books, put phone in bag.
- Word order shifts emphasis or what feels “highlighted.”
For example:- Mobitel stavi u torbu can emphasize mobitel a bit more.
For a learner, the original:
- Spremi knjige i stavi mobitel u torbu
is the most neutral and straightforward pattern.
The sentence is informal, addressed to “ti” (singular “you”; friend, child, family member):
- kreneš – 2nd person singular
- molim te – “please (you, singular informal)”
A more formal version (speaking politely to an adult you don’t know well, or to multiple people) would use vi-forms:
- Prije nego što krenete, molim vas, spremite knjige i stavite mobitel u torbu.
Changes:
- kreneš → krenete (2pl)
- spremi → spremite
- stavi → stavite
- molim te → molim vas
This version sounds polite and respectful.
Te is a clitic pronoun (unstressed, short pronoun). Croatian clitics obey relatively strict second-position rules: they tend to come after the first stressed word or phrase in a clause.
In molim te:
- molim is the stressed verb.
- te comes after it, so molim te is natural and standard.
Te molim is possible in certain contexts with special emphasis, but in neutral word order molim te is strongly preferred.
More examples:
- Vidim te. – “I see you.” (not Te vidim in neutral speech)
- Molim te, pomozi mi. – “Please, help me.”
So in this sentence, molim te follows the normal clitic placement pattern.