Breakdown of Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.
Questions & Answers about Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.
Budilica means alarm clock.
- It is a noun, feminine gender (you can tell from the ending -a, which is very common for feminine nouns).
- The base verb is buditi (to wake [someone] up), so budilica is literally “the thing that wakes (you) up” → an alarm clock.
You would say:
- Ovo je nova budilica. – This is a new alarm clock.
- Gdje je moja budilica? – Where is my alarm clock?
Zvoni is the 3rd person singular present tense of zvoniti (to ring).
- budilica = subject (3rd person singular)
- zvoni = rings / is ringing
So Budilica zvoni literally = The alarm clock rings / is ringing.
You do not add se here; zvoniti is not reflexive in this meaning.
A few more forms:
- ja zvonim – I ring
- ti zvoniš – you ring
- on/ona/ono zvoni – he/she/it rings
- oni/one/ona zvone – they ring
Croatian is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (I, you, he, she, it, we, they) are often left out when the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.
In Budilica zvoni rano:
- The subject budilica is present, so you don’t need an extra pronoun ona (she/it).
If you wanted to emphasise it, you could say Ona zvoni rano, but normally you just use Budilica zvoni rano without any extra “it”.
Rano is an adverb meaning early, describing when the alarm clock rings.
- Budilica zvoni rano. – The alarm clock rings early.
Rana is an adjective meaning early in the sense of “early (something)”:
- rana večera – an early dinner
- rani jutarnji let – an early morning flight (here rani is the masculine form)
So:
- rano → tells you when something happens (adverb)
- rani / rana / rano → describes a noun (adjective)
In Croatian, ali (“but”) normally starts a new clause, and you usually put a comma before it, just like in English.
- Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.
– The alarm clock rings early, but my lazy brother is still sleeping.
Each part could stand as its own sentence:
- Budilica zvoni rano.
- Moj lijeni brat još spava.
Because ali joins two independent clauses, Croatian grammar calls for a comma before it.
All three can sometimes translate as “but”, but they’re used differently:
ali – general “but”, most common contrast:
- Umoran sam, ali radim. – I’m tired, but I’m working.
a – lighter contrast or just “and / whereas”:
- Ja pijem kavu, a on pije čaj. – I drink coffee, and he drinks tea / whereas he drinks tea.
nego – usually “but rather / but instead”, after a negative:
- Ne pijem kavu, nego čaj. – I don’t drink coffee, but (rather) tea.
In your sentence, ali is correct because it’s a clear contrast: the alarm is ringing, but the brother is still sleeping.
The normal order in Croatian is:
possessive (moj/tvoj/njegov) + adjective + noun
So:
- moj lijeni brat – my lazy brother
- tvoj stari prijatelj – your old friend
- naša mala kuća – our small house
Other orders (brat moj lijeni, ljeni moj brat) are possible only in poetic, emphatic, or very unusual styles, and will usually sound odd or very marked in everyday speech.
So moj lijeni brat is the natural neutral word order.
Croatian adjectives often have a short (indefinite) and a long (definite) form in the masculine singular:
- base form: lijen – lazy
- long/definite: lijeni
Roughly:
- lijen brat – a lazy brother (more general, not specifying which one)
- moj lijeni brat – my lazy brother (a specific known brother)
With possessives (like moj), demonstratives (like taj, ovaj) or when the noun is clearly definite, the -i form (lijeni) is more natural:
- taj lijeni brat – that lazy brother
- onaj visoki čovjek – that tall man
- moj dobri prijatelj – my good friend
So moj lijeni brat is the typical, idiomatic choice here.
Još here means still.
- Moj lijeni brat još spava. – My lazy brother is still sleeping.
You can also say:
- Moj lijeni brat još uvijek spava.
Još uvijek is a bit stronger / more explicit, but in everyday speech još alone very often means “still”.
Word order:
- još spava, još uvijek spava, and spava još uvijek are all possible.
- The most neutral is još spava or još uvijek spava right after the subject.
Spavati is the infinitive – to sleep.
Spava is the 3rd person singular present tense – he/she/it sleeps / is sleeping.
Conjugation (present tense):
- ja spavam – I sleep
- ti spavaš – you sleep
- on/ona/ono spava – he/she/it sleeps
- mi spavamo – we sleep
- vi spavate – you (pl/formal) sleep
- oni/one/ona spavaju – they sleep
So with brat (3rd person singular), you must use spava, not spavati:
- Moj brat spava. – My brother is sleeping.
Both budilica and brat are in the nominative case.
- Budilica zvoni rano – budilica is the subject, nominative.
- Moj lijeni brat još spava – brat is the subject, nominative.
Subjects of a sentence in Croatian are normally in nominative, just like dictionary forms:
- majka kuha – the mother is cooking
- pas laje – the dog is barking
Yes, you can change the word order, especially in spoken language, to shift the focus.
For example:
- Moj lijeni brat još spava, ali budilica zvoni rano.
This version puts more emphasis on the brother first.
Both:
- Budilica zvoni rano, ali moj lijeni brat još spava.
- Moj lijeni brat još spava, ali budilica zvoni rano.
are grammatically correct. Croatian allows flexible word order, but the original version you gave sounds very natural and is probably the most typical.
Yes, it’s an aspect difference:
zvoniti – imperfective: to be ringing / to ring in general (ongoing or habitual)
- Budilica zvoni rano. – The alarm clock (is) rings early (habitually or right now).
zazvoniti – perfective: to ring once / start ringing
- Budilica će zazvoniti rano. – The alarm clock will ring (go off) early.
- Budilica je zazvonila rano. – The alarm clock rang (went off) early.
In the present tense, you normally use the imperfective (zvoni) to talk about what is happening now or as a routine.