Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati zašto mu smeta glazba iz susjedstva.

Yesterday the tenant tried to describe to me why the music from the neighborhood bothers him.

Breakdown of Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati zašto mu smeta glazba iz susjedstva.

• biti: to be
• glazba: music
• mi: me
• mu: him
• zašto: why
• iz: from
• jučer: yesterday
• pokušati: to try
• susjedstvo: neighborhood
• smetati: to bother
• stanar: tenant
• opisati: to describe

Questions & Answers about Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati zašto mu smeta glazba iz susjedstva.

What exactly does stanar mean here? Is it “neighbor” or “tenant,” and how is it different from susjed?

Stanar literally means tenant – a person who lives in a flat/house that they rent.

Susjed means neighbor – a person who lives near you (next door, in the same building, on the same street), regardless of whether they rent or own.

So:

• stanar = focuses on the renting relationship (tenant of some building/flat)
• susjed = focuses on physical closeness (neighbor)

In your sentence, stanar is “my tenant / the tenant (of my building/flat).”
Susjedstvo later in the sentence is “neighborhood,” not “neighbor.”

What is the function of mi in Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati…, and why is it in that position?

Mi is a clitic form of the 1st person singular dative pronoun: “to me”.
It marks the indirect object – the person to whom the tenant tried to explain something.

So:

• Stanar mi je pokušao opisati… ≈ “The tenant tried to explain to me…”

As a clitic, mi:

• is unstressed
• normally appears very early in the sentence (the so‑called “second position”), right after the first stressed word or phrase (Stanar in this example).

That’s why you get:

• Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati… not:
• Stanar je mi jučer pokušao opisati… (wrong word order for clitics)

What’s the difference between mi and mu in this sentence?

Both mi and mu are dative clitic pronouns, but they refer to different people:

• mi = to me (1st person singular, dative)
• mu = to him (3rd person singular masculine, dative)

In the sentence:

• Stanar mi je… = “The tenant… to me…”
• zašto mu smeta glazba… = “why the music bothers him…”

So:

• mi marks who is being explained to (the listener / recipient)
• mu marks who is bothered by the music (the person affected by the annoyance)

Why does smetati use the dative (mu smeta) instead of the accusative (ga smeta)?

The verb smetati (“to bother, to disturb, to annoy”) normally takes the person who is bothered in the dative, not the accusative:

• Glazba mu smeta. = “Music bothers him.” (literally: “Music to‑him bothers.”)

Pattern:

• X (subject, nominative) + nekome (dative) + smeta
  = X bothers/annoys someone.

Using the accusative (ga smeta) would sound wrong here; with smetati, the person affected is dative by default.

Why do we say pokušao opisati with two verbs, and why is opisati in the infinitive?

This is a common structure with verbs like pokušati (“to try”) in Croatian:

• pokušati
  • infinitive of the main action

So:

• pokušao opisati = “(he) tried to describe”
  • pokušao – past tense of pokušati (tried)
  • opisati – infinitive, the action he tried to do (to describe)

Other examples:

• Pokušavam razumjeti. – “I’m trying to understand.”
• Pokušali su objasniti. – “They tried to explain.”

The infinitive is required after pokušati when you specify what someone is trying to do.

Why is there a je in Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati…? Could we just say Stanar mi jučer pokušao opisati…?

You need je because this is the standard past tense (perfect) formation in Croatian:

• je = auxiliary verb (3rd person singular of biti – “to be”)
• pokušao = past participle of pokušati

Pattern:

• on je pokušao = “he tried”

Without je, the sentence is ungrammatical in contemporary standard Croatian:

• Stanar mi jučer pokušao opisati… – incorrect (missing auxiliary)
• Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati… – correct

Can I move jučer in the sentence, and does that change the meaning?

Yes, you can move jučer (yesterday); the basic meaning stays the same, but the emphasis shifts slightly. Some common options:

• Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati…
• Jučer mi je stanar pokušao opisati…
• Stanar mi je pokušao jučer opisati… (less common, but possible)

In all of them, jučer still means “yesterday.”
Putting Jučer at the beginning often emphasizes when it happened:

• Jučer mi je stanar pokušao opisati… – “Yesterday, my tenant tried to explain to me…”

Important: je and mi as clitics still tend to stay together near the start of the sentence; you cannot just freely insert jučer between them in any way you like.

Why is glazba in the nominative case here, and not some other case?

In zašto mu smeta glazba iz susjedstva, glazba is the subject of the verb smeta.

• glazba (nominative singular) = “the music”
• smeta = “bothers/annoys”
• mu (dative) = “him”

Structure:

• Glazba (what is doing the bothering) → subject, nominative
• mu (who is being bothered) → dative
• smeta → verb

So it’s nominative because it is the grammatical subject of the sentence.

Why is it smeta and not smetaju? How does agreement work here?

Smeta is 3rd person singular present tense. It agrees with glazba, which is grammatically singular:

• glazba (singular noun) → smeta (3rd singular)

If the subject were plural, you would use smetaju:

• Zvukovi mu smetaju. – “The sounds bother him.”
  • zvukovi (plural) → smetaju (3rd plural)

Even if English might use a plural‑feeling word like “noises,” Croatian agreement is always based on the grammatical number of the subject noun.

Why is it iz susjedstva and not just iz susjeda or od susjeda? What’s the nuance?

• iz susjedstva literally = “from the neighborhood”
  • susjedstvo = area where your neighbors live, the neighborhood as a whole.
• od susjeda = “from the neighbor(s)” (from a specific neighbor / neighbors)

Nuance:

• glazba iz susjedstva – music coming from around the neighborhood (more general source: nearby flats/houses, not necessarily one specific person)
• glazba od susjeda – music from (my) neighbor(s) in particular (more personal, specific source).

Both can be grammatically correct, but iz susjedstva suggests a more general “from next door / from around us” feeling.

Why is susjedstva in the genitive after iz?

The preposition iz (“from, out of”) normally requires the genitive case in Croatian.

So:

• iz
  • susjedstvo (dictionary form, nominative)
    → iz susjedstva (genitive singular)

This is a regular preposition–case combination:

• iz kuće – from the house
• iz škole – from school
• iz grada – from the city
• iz susjedstva – from the neighborhood

Could we use pokušavao instead of pokušao? What would be the difference?

Yes, you can, but the aspect and nuance change:

• pokušao – perfective; a completed, one‑time attempt:
  • He tried (once, or as a single, bounded event) to explain.
• pokušavao – imperfective; repeated or ongoing attempts:
  • He was trying / kept trying to explain (over some period, or several times).

So:

• Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati…
  = Yesterday, he tried (once / as a single attempt) to describe it.
• Stanar mi je jučer pokušavao opisati…
  = Yesterday, he was trying / kept trying to describe it (suggests duration or repeated effort).

Could the word order be Stanar je mi jučer pokušao opisati… or Stanar jučer mi je pokušao opisati…?

No. Croatian clitic pronouns (mi, mu, ga, je, etc.) and the auxiliary je have fairly strict placement rules. They usually form a “clitic cluster” in the second position of the sentence or clause.

Correct:

• Stanar mi je jučer pokušao opisati…

Wrong:

• Stanar je mi jučer pokušao opisati…
• Stanar jučer mi je pokušao opisati… (very unnatural)

The preferred pattern is:

1. First stressed element (Stanar, or Jučer if you start with that)
2. Then the cluster of clitics: mi je
3. Then the rest of the sentence.

For example:

• Jučer mi je stanar pokušao opisati… – also correct, with Jučer as the first element and mi je immediately after it.