Zaboravio sam spomenuti naš plan na sastanku.

to be

Breakdown of Zaboravio sam spomenuti naš plan na sastanku.

• na: at
• naš: our
• plan: plan

Questions & Answers about Zaboravio sam spomenuti naš plan na sastanku.

What does Zaboravio sam literally mean, and why are there two words for “forgot”?

Zaboravio sam literally means “I have forgotten” or “I forgot”.

• zaboravio – past participle of zaboraviti (“to forget”), masculine singular
• sam – present tense of biti (“to be”) for I am

Croatian forms the past tense (perfect) with “biti” (to be) + past participle:

• (ja) sam zaboravio – I forgot (speaker male)
• (ja) sam zaboravila – I forgot (speaker female)

So zaboravio sam = I am forgotten (literally in form) → I forgot in meaning.

Why is it zaboravio sam and not sam zaboravio? Are both correct?

Both zaboravio sam and sam zaboravio are grammatically correct.

In Croatian, the auxiliary sam/si/je/smo/ste/su is quite flexible in word order. Common patterns:

• Zaboravio sam spomenuti naš plan. – neutral; very typical.
• Sam zaboravio spomenuti naš plan. – possible, but sounds a bit marked; you’d usually put sam after the first stressed element.
• Ja sam zaboravio spomenuti naš plan. – adds emphasis on ja = I (as opposed to someone else) forgot to mention our plan.

Default, natural order in this sentence is Zaboravio sam spomenuti….