Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.

Tomorrow I will return home early.

Breakdown of Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.

• kući: home
• sutra: tomorrow
• rano: early
• htjeti: will
• vratiti se: to come back

Questions & Answers about Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.

Why is there no word meaning “I” in this sentence?

Croatian usually omits subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

In ću se vratiti, ću (from biti, “to be”) is in the 1st person singular future, so it already tells you the subject is “I”. Adding ja (I) is possible but only for emphasis:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano. – Neutral.
• Ja ću se sutra vratiti kući rano. – Emphasizes I (contrasting with someone else, for example).

What exactly does ću mean, and why is it used here?

Ću is a short (clitic) future-tense form of the verb biti (“to be”), used as a future auxiliary.

Croatian future I is formed with:

• a short form of biti (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će)
• the infinitive of the main verb.

So:

• vratiti (se) – to return (oneself)
• ću se vratiti – I will return

The same pattern:

• Raditi ću / Radit ću – I will work
• Vidjeti ću / Vidjet ću – I will see

(When the auxiliary comes after the infinitive, it is written attached: vratit ću se.)

Why is there a se in ću se vratiti? What does it do?

Se is a reflexive pronoun. Many Croatian verbs are reflexive, and their meaning is tied to se.

The verb here is vratiti se (perfective), which means “to return, to come back”. Without se, vratiti more literally means “to return something, to give back”.

• Vratiti se kući. – To return (oneself) home.
• Vratiti knjigu u knjižnicu. – To return a book to the library.

So you must include se with vratiti se when the subject is the one coming back.

Where exactly does se go in the sentence, and can I move it?

Se is a clitic (short unstressed word), and clitics in Croatian must appear in the “second position” of the clause or phrase, in a fixed internal order.

In Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano:

• Sutra is the first word of the clause.
• The clitics follow: ću se.
• The main verb comes next: vratiti.

You CANNOT say:

• ✗ Sutra se ću vratiti kući rano. (wrong clitic order)
• ✗ Sutra ću vratiti se kući rano. (wrong position of se)

Correct options include:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.
• Vratit ću se sutra kući rano.
• Ja ću se sutra vratiti kući rano. (with explicit ja for emphasis)

Why is the verb vratiti se in the infinitive form and not conjugated like in the present tense?

In the future I tense, Croatian uses:

• auxiliary ću, ćeš, …
  • infinitive of the main verb.

So the pattern is:

• ću
  • vratiti (se) – I will return
• ćeš
  • doći – you will come
• će
  • spavati – he/she will sleep

You don’t conjugate vratiti se as in the present; the conjugation is carried by the auxiliary ću. That’s why you see:

• ću se vratiti, not something like se vraćam in this construction.

Why is it kući and not kuća in this sentence?

Kuća is the basic noun “house”. Kući is its dative/locative form and is often used idiomatically to mean “(to/at) home”.

In this sentence:

• vratiti se kući = to return home / to go back home

You would typically say:

• Idem kući. – I’m going home.
• Sam kod kuće. – I’m at home. (here kuće is genitive with kod)

You would not say:

• ✗ Vratiti se kuća (wrong case)

  So kući is the normal, correct form to express “home” as a destination.

Is there any preposition missing before kući, like “to” in English?

No preposition is needed. Croatian often uses case endings instead of prepositions to express direction.

The dative/locative form kući by itself, after verbs of movement, already carries the meaning “to home”:

• Idem kući. – I’m going (to) home.
• Vraćam se kući. – I’m returning (to) home.

English needs to; Croatian just changes the noun form.

Is the word order Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano fixed, or can I move words around?

The basic information stays the same, but Croatian allows quite a lot of word order flexibility for emphasis and rhythm. Some common variants:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano. – Neutral, slightly emphasizing “tomorrow” (it’s first).
• Rano ću se sutra vratiti kući. – Emphasizes “early”.
• Vratit ću se sutra kući rano. – Starts with the verb, neutral-ish.
• Sutra ću se rano vratiti kući. – Emphasizes returning early, by moving rano closer to vratiti.

However, clitics (ću, se, mi, ti, ga, je, …) must stay in second position and in a specific order. You can move non-clitic words around them, but not break clitic rules.

Where can sutra (“tomorrow”) and rano (“early”) go in the sentence? Are they flexible?

Yes, adverbs like sutra and rano are fairly flexible. All of these are grammatical, with slightly different emphasis:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.
• Rano ću se sutra vratiti kući.
• Sutra ću se rano vratiti kući.
• Vratit ću se kući rano sutra. (less common but possible)
• Kući ću se sutra vratiti rano. (focus on “home”)

The main constraints:

• Don’t separate clitics incorrectly (e.g. don’t insert sutra between ću and se).
• Keep the sentence natural-sounding; some permutations are technically possible but sound odd to natives.

Can I say Sutra se vraćam kući rano instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can say Sutra se vraćam kući rano. It’s also correct but slightly different in aspect and tense:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.
  – Future I + perfective verb vratiti se.
  – Focus on the completed event of returning tomorrow, one-time act.

• Sutra se vraćam kući rano.
  – Present tense of vraćati se (imperfective), used for near future / planned action.
  – Feels more like “I’m coming back home early tomorrow”, focusing on the process / plan.

Both can translate to English future, but in Croatian the choice of aspect (perfective vs. imperfective) adds nuance.

Could I say Sutra se ću vratiti kući rano or Sutra se vratit ću kući rano?

No, both are wrong because of clitic placement:

• ✗ Sutra se ću vratiti kući rano. – Incorrect clitic order (se should not come before ću here).
• ✗ Sutra se vratit ću kući rano. – Bad clitic placement (splitting verb+auxiliary in the wrong way).

Correct versions include:

• Sutra ću se vratiti kući rano.
• Sutra ću se kući rano vratiti.
• Vratit ću se sutra kući rano.

Clitics (ću, se, mi, ti, ga, je, …) must be in a specific internal order; roughly, the auxiliary ću comes before se in the clitic cluster in this kind of sentence.

How do you pronounce ću and vratiti?

Approximate pronunciations (in simple English terms):

• ću – like “choo” in English “choo-choo”, but shorter.
  IPA: /t͡ʃu/

• vratiti – VRAH-tee-tee

  • vra – like “vra” in “Vladimir”, with a as in “father”
  • ti – like “tee”
  • ti – again “tee”
    IPA: /ʋrǎtiti/

Stress is typically on the first syllable: VRA-ti-ti.