Breakdown of Roditelji su napokon prihvatili da se želim seliti u drugi grad.
biti
to be
u
to
grad
city
željeti
to want
Questions & Answers about Roditelji su napokon prihvatili da se želim seliti u drugi grad.
Why is su in the middle of the sentence (after Roditelji) and not next to prihvatili?
In Croatian, the auxiliary biti (to be) in the past tense is a clitic, and clitics normally go in second position in the clause, not necessarily right next to “their” verb.
- Roditelji su napokon prihvatili…
- Roditelji = first element in the clause
- su = clitic, goes right after the first element
- napokon prihvatili = the rest of the predicate
You could also say:
- Roditelji su prihvatili napokon… (also fine, just a slightly different rhythm)
But you normally wouldn’t put su at the very end:
- ✗ Roditelji napokon prihvatili su… (sounds wrong/very marked)
So: su is where it is because of the general “second position clitic” rule in Croatian.
Why is it prihvatili and not something like prihvatili su on its own or prihvatili su da as one unit?
Prihvatili is the past participle of prihvatiti (to accept).
The whole past tense form is made of:
- auxiliary su (present tense of biti)
- past participle prihvatili
Together: su prihvatili = accepted.
They do belong together semantically, but because is a clitic, it is forced into second position in the clause. The verb itself () can be separated from by adverbs or other material: