Learn Hardcore Croatian: Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela. - Yesterday we had a long ride by bus to the village.

In Croatian, short forms of the verb biti (to be) like sam, si, je, smo, ste, su are clitics and must normally stand in second position in the clause.

So:

✅ Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
(Jučer is the first word, smo must come right after it.)
❌ Jučer imali smo dugu vožnju… – sounds wrong in standard Croatian, because imali is “blocking” the clitic’s second position.

More examples of correct word orders:

Imali smo jučer dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
Mi smo jučer imali dugu vožnju…
In all of them, smo is in second position in its clause.

What exactly is the tense in smo imali, and how is the past tense formed here?

Smo imali expresses the past tense (perfect) in Croatian.

It’s formed from:

The present tense of biti (to be) as a clitic: smo (we are)
The L‑participle (past participle) of the main verb: imali (from imati – to have)

So:

Imati (to have)
- ja sam imao / imala
- ti si imao / imala
- on/ona/ono je imao / imala / imalo
- mi smo imali / imale
- vi ste imali / imale
- oni/one/ona su imali / imale

In the sentence:

imali = “had”
smo = marks 1st person plural and past tense

Literally: “Yesterday we were having had a long ride…”, which in natural English is just “Yesterday we had a long bus ride…”.

Why is it dugu vožnju and not duga vožnja?

Because dugu vožnju is in the accusative case (singular), used for the direct object of the verb.

Verb: imali (we had)
“What did we have?” → dugu vožnju (a long ride) → direct object → accusative

Base forms (nominative singular):

adjective: duga (long – feminine)
noun: vožnja (ride/drive – feminine)

In the accusative feminine singular, the endings change:

duga → dugu
vožnja → vožnju

So:

Duga vožnja je bila naporna. – The long ride was tiring. (subject → nominative)
Imali smo dugu vožnju. – We had a long ride. (object → accusative)

What does vožnja mean exactly, and how is it different from the verb voziti (se)?

vožnja is a noun meaning “ride, drive, trip” (by vehicle).
It comes from the verb voziti (se) – “to drive” / “to ride (as a passenger)” / “to travel by vehicle”.

Differences:

vožnja (noun) = the event or ride itself
- Imali smo dugu vožnju. – We had a long ride.
voziti se (verb) = the activity of riding
- Jučer smo se dugo vozili autobusom. – Yesterday we travelled for a long time by bus.

Both are natural; your sentence chooses the noun construction (to have a long ride), which is very common.

Why is it autobusom and not just autobus, and what case is that?

Autobusom is the instrumental case singular of autobus (bus).

Instrumental (ending -om for most masculine nouns) is used to express means or instrument, including means of transport:

ići autobusom – to go by bus
putovati vlakom – to travel by train
voziti se autom – to ride by car

So autobusom here means “by bus”:

dugu vožnju autobusom = “a long ride by bus”

You cannot just say dugu vožnju autobus; without the case ending -om, it’s not grammatically formed and doesn’t mean “by bus”.

Could I say busom instead of autobusom?

Yes.

autobus is the full, neutral word for “bus”.
bus is a shorter, colloquial form, very commonly used in speech.

Both decline the same way in the instrumental:

autobus → autobusom
bus → busom

So you can say:

Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju busom do sela. (more informal)

Why is it do sela and not do selo? What case is sela here?

Do sela uses the genitive case singular of selo (village).

The preposition do (“to, up to, as far as”) always takes the genitive:

do grada – to the town/city
do škole – to the school
do rijeke – to the river
do sela – to the village

Selo is neuter:

nominative singular: selo
genitive singular: sela

So:

❌ do selo – incorrect (wrong case)
✅ do sela – correct (genitive)

Meaning: “to (as far as) the village”.

What is the difference between do sela and u selo?

Both can be translated as “to the village”, but they have different nuances and grammar:

do sela – up to / as far as the village
- do
  - genitive (sela)
- Emphasis: reaching the vicinity / limit (arrival at or up to the village).
- Often neutral about what happens inside.
u selo – into the village
- u
  - accusative for movement: u selo
- Emphasis: movement into the interior of the village.

In many contexts both can be used, but:

Vozili smo se autobusom do sela. – We went as far as the village (endpoint).
Išli smo autobusom u selo. – We went into the village (entering it).

Is jučer always spelled like that? I’ve seen juče somewhere.

This is mostly a Croatian vs. Serbian (and regional) difference:

Croatian standard: jučer
Serbian standard: juče

Meaning is the same: “yesterday”.

So in standard Croatian, your sentence correctly has:

Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.

Can I move jučer to another place in the sentence, like in English?

Yes. Croatian word order is flexible, especially for adverbs of time like jučer, though the position of clitics (like smo) must still follow the second-position rule.

All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

Jučer smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
– Neutral, focuses on what happened yesterday.
Imali smo jučer dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
– Slightly more focus on imali smo (“we had”), “jučer” comes later.
Imali smo dugu vožnju autobusom do sela jučer.
– Fine in speech; “jučer” adds time information at the end.

Clitic rule still holds:

smo remains in second position within its clause (after Jučer, or after Imali, etc.).

Why don’t we say mi smo imali? Is it wrong to include mi?

You can say mi smo imali, but mi (we) is normally omitted because the verb form already shows the person and number.

Imali smo dugu vožnju autobusom do sela. – completely normal
Mi smo imali dugu vožnju autobusom do sela. – adds emphasis on “we” (contrasting with others, for example).

Croatian usually drops subject pronouns unless you want to stress them:

Imam auto. (not Ja imam auto unless you mean “I have a car (not someone else)”).

Could I say Vozili smo se autobusom do sela instead of Imali smo dugu vožnju autobusom do sela?

Yes, and it’s very natural. The meaning is very close:

Imali smo dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.
– Literally: We had a long ride by bus to the village.
– Focuses on the ride as a thing/event (a long ride).
Dugo smo se vozili autobusom do sela. / Vozili smo se autobusom do sela.
– Literally: We were (for a long time) riding/travelling by bus to the village.
– Focuses more on the activity of travelling.

Both are good; choice depends on style and what you want to highlight (the ride as an event vs. the process of travelling).

Is dugu vožnju the only natural way to say “a long bus ride”? Are there common alternatives?

Duga/dugu vožnja (autobusom) is very common and natural, but there are alternatives:

dugo putovanje autobusom – a long journey by bus
duga vožnja busom – long ride by bus (more colloquial)
duga vožnja do sela – long ride to the village
dug put autobusom do sela – long trip by bus to the village

In your structure, the most standard-sounding is exactly what you have:

Imali smo dugu vožnju autobusom do sela.