On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.

He always promises that he will come on time.

Breakdown of On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.

• on: he
• uvijek: always
• htjeti: will
• na: on
• doći: to come
• vrijeme: time
• da: that
• obećavati: to promise

Questions & Answers about On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.

Why is the pronoun On used here? Can it be left out?

Croatian is a pro‑drop language, which means you can normally leave out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

• On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.
  = He always promises that he will come on time.

You can also say:

• Uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.

Both are grammatically correct.

On is used when you:

• want to emphasize he (as opposed to someone else), or
• are starting a new sentence and want to be very clear who you’re talking about.

Without On, the sentence is a bit more neutral and less emphatic about the subject.

What is the role of da in da će doći na vrijeme? Is it like English that?

Yes. Da here is a conjunction that introduces a subordinate clause and works very much like English that in this sentence.

• On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.
  Literally: He always promises that he will come on time.

In English you can often drop that:

• He always promises (that) he will come on time.

In Croatian, in this structure you cannot drop da:

• ✅ On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.
• ❌ On uvijek obećava će doći na vrijeme. (ungrammatical)

So: after verbs like reći (to say), misliti (to think), obećavati (to promise), you normally introduce the content with da.

Why is it da će doći and not da dolazi? What is the difference?

Both forms are possible, but the meaning is different:

1. da će doći na vrijeme

   • Future tense (će
     • infinitive doći)
   • Refers to a future event: he is promising about what will happen later.
   • Natural translation: that he will come on time.

2. da dolazi na vrijeme

   • Present tense, imperfective verb (dolazi from dolaziti)
   • Sounds like he is promising something that is already an established habit or fact, for example:
     • On uvijek obećava da dolazi na vrijeme.
       = He always promises that he (generally) comes on time.
       This is a bit strange, because you don’t usually “promise” something that is already a known habit.

So, if the promise is about what will happen in the future (which is the normal situation), da će doći is the natural and idiomatic choice.

Why do we use će doći for the future and not just a single future verb form?

In standard Croatian, the normal way to form the future tense (Futur I) is:

• auxiliary of htjeti (to want) in a short clitic form (ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će)
  
  • infinitive of the main verb.

So:

• On će doći. = He will come.

There is no single synthetic future-form of doći (doćat, doćće etc. do not exist).
The only correct form is će doći, where:

• će = 3rd person singular of htjeti used as a future auxiliary
• doći = infinitive of the main verb (to come)

Inside a da‑clause, the pattern stays the same:

• da će doći = that he will come

Why is će right after da? Could we say da doći će na vrijeme?

You cannot say da doći će. The position of će is determined by clitic rules in Croatian.

• će is a clitic (an unstressed short word) and must appear in second position in its clause.
• In the clause da će doći na vrijeme, the first word of the clause is da, so the clitic će must come immediately after it.

So:

• ✅ da će doći na vrijeme
• ❌ da doći će na vrijeme

This second‑position rule applies to all clitics (e.g. se, ga, joj, mu, sam, si, smo, ste, ću, ćeš, će etc.) within their clause.

What is the infinitive of obećava, and why is that form used here?

The verb form obećava is:

• 3rd person singular present
• of the imperfective verb obećavati (to promise, repeatedly / generally).

Infinitive: obećavati

Croatian has aspect pairs:

• obećavati – imperfective (ongoing, repeated, habitual)
• obećati – perfective (single, completed act of promising)

In this sentence:

• On uvijek obećava...
  The adverb uvijek (always) + imperfective obećava expresses a habitual action:
  He does this again and again.

If you used the perfective:

• On će obećati da će doći na vrijeme.
  = He will (once) promise that he will come on time.
  This refers to a single future promise, not a repeated habit.

So obećava is chosen because the sentence describes a repeated behavior.

Could we say On uvijek obeća da će doći na vrijeme instead of On uvijek obećava?

You can form such a sentence, but the aspect and meaning change and it usually sounds odd in this habitual context.

• On uvijek obećava...
  = He always promises… (habitual, imperfective – the natural choice with uvijek)

• On uvijek obeća...
  Literally: He always will‑promise…
  obeća is a perfective present form, and with perfective verbs, the present form normally has future meaning. With uvijek, this sounds unnatural or literary at best.

In everyday Croatian, when you want to say that someone always does something, you almost always use the imperfective (here: obećava) with uvijek.

Why do we use doći and not dolaziti in da će doći na vrijeme?

Both verbs exist but with different aspect:

• doći – perfective: to come (as a single, complete arrival)
• dolaziti – imperfective: to come / to be coming (repeatedly / as a process)

In da će doći na vrijeme:

• He is promising each individual arrival as a complete event:
  that he will come on time (each time, he’ll arrive on time).

Contrast:

• On obećava da će dolaziti na vrijeme.
  = He promises that he will be coming on time (as a regular habit in the future).

So:

• će doći focuses on each arrival as a finished event.
• će dolaziti emphasizes an ongoing or repeated future habit.

Both can be grammatically correct, but će doći matches the usual promise about a specific arrival.

Why is uvijek placed before obećava? Can it go somewhere else?

Uvijek is an adverb meaning always, and the standard, neutral place for adverbs like this is before the main verb they modify:

• On uvijek obećava...
  = He always promises...

Other possibilities:

1. Uvijek on obećava da će doći na vrijeme.

   • Emphasizes on (he), a bit like: It’s always him who promises...

2. On obećava da će uvijek doći na vrijeme.

   • Changes the meaning: now uvijek modifies doći, not obećava:
     
     • He promises that he will always come on time.

3. On obećava uvijek da će doći na vrijeme.

   • Possible, but sounds less natural; uvijek is typically closer to the verb it qualifies.

If you want the meaning He always promises, the most natural is:

• On uvijek obećava...

What does na vrijeme mean exactly, and why do we use na and not u?

Na vrijeme is a fixed expression meaning on time / in time (not late).

• doći na vrijeme = to come on time
• stići na vrijeme = to arrive on time

Here, na is used because Croatian often uses na in idiomatic time expressions that correspond to English on:

• na vrijeme – on time
• na vrijeme ručka – at lunchtime (literally: at the time of lunch)

u vrijeme is also possible in the language, but it means during the time of / at the period of, not on time:

• u vrijeme rata = during the war
• u to vrijeme = at that time

If you want to say on time, use na vrijeme, not u vrijeme.

Does this sentence say anything about whether he actually comes on time, or only that he promises it?

The sentence only states that he promises it, not whether he really does it.

• On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.
  = He always promises that he will come on time.

Implications:

• It could be neutral: he promises and then indeed comes on time.
• It could be ironic/contextual: he always promises, but maybe often fails to come on time.

Grammatically, the sentence talks only about the act of promising (imperfective, habitual) and the content of that promise (future arrival), not about whether the promise is fulfilled.

Is a comma needed before da in this sentence?

No, a comma is not used before da here.

• ✅ On uvijek obećava da će doći na vrijeme.
• ❌ On uvijek obećava, da će doći na vrijeme.

In Croatian, you do not normally put a comma before da when it introduces an object clause after verbs like:

• reći, misliti, znati, vjerovati, obećavati etc.

So the correct punctuation is exactly as in the given sentence, without a comma.