Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.

The bowl emptied quickly.

Breakdown of Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.

• brzo: quickly
• isprazniti se: to run out
• zdjela: bowl

Questions & Answers about Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.

1. What is a literal, word‑for‑word translation of Zdjela se brzo ispraznila, and what is the most natural English version?

Word‑for‑word:

• Zdjela = bowl (subject, nominative)
• se = reflexive particle
• brzo = quickly
• ispraznila = emptied (feminine singular past form)

Very literal: The bowl quickly emptied itself.
Natural English: The bowl emptied quickly or The bowl quickly became empty.

2. Why do we use se here? Does it really mean itself?

Se is a reflexive clitic, but here it doesn’t mean itself in the same way as in English.

• The verb isprazniti by itself is normally transitive:
  
  • Netko je ispraznio zdjelu. = Someone emptied the bowl.
• Adding se makes it intransitive and focuses on the change of state of the subject:
  
  • Zdjela se ispraznila. = The bowl emptied / got emptied.

So se here marks a kind of “middle voice” / anticausative: the bowl ends up empty, and we either don’t care who did it, or it’s obvious from context (e.g. the kids, the dog). You usually cannot just drop se;
✗ Zdjela brzo ispraznila is ungrammatical.

3. Why is the verb form ispraznila and not something like ispraznio or ispraznilo?

Because Croatian past participles agree with the gender and number of the subject.

• Zdjela is feminine singular, so the past participle must be feminine singular: ispraznila.
• If the subject were masculine or neuter, you’d get:
  • Tanjūr se brzo ispraznio. = The plate emptied quickly. (masculine sg)
  • Vino se brzo ispraznilo. = The wine emptied quickly. (neuter sg)
  • Zdjele su se brzo ispraznile. = The bowls emptied quickly. (feminine plural)

So ispraznila is chosen purely for agreement with zdjela.

4. What tense/aspect is ispraznila, and why not praznila or praznila se?

Ispraznila is the past tense of a perfective verb (isprazniti se).

• Perfective: isprazniti se → ispraznila se = emptied (completely, as a finished event).
• Imperfective: prazniti se → praznila se = was emptying / kept emptying / used to empty (process, repeated or ongoing).

Compare:

• Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.
  = The bowl quickly went from “not empty” to “empty” (one completed event).
• Zdjela se brzo praznila.
  = The bowl was emptying quickly (focus on the ongoing process, much rarer in practice).

5. Why is it ispraznila and not something like je ispraznila? Isn’t there usually a je in the past tense?

In full, careful standard Croatian, the past tense uses the auxiliary biti (je) plus the past participle:

• Zdjela se je brzo ispraznila.

However, in everyday spoken Croatian (and a lot of informal writing), the 3rd‑person auxiliary je is often dropped, especially when there is another clitic like se:

• Zdjela se brzo ispraznila. – very common and natural in speech.

So:

• With auxiliary (more formal/explicit): Zdjela se je brzo ispraznila.
• Without je (very common in practice): Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.

6. Why does se come right after Zdjela? Could we say Zdjela brzo se ispraznila or Se zdjela brzo ispraznila?

Se is a clitic (an unstressed little word) and Croatian clitics normally go in the so‑called “second position” in the clause: they come right after the first stressed word or phrase.

In this sentence:

• First stressed word: Zdjela
• So se must follow it: Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.

Some variants:

• ✓ Zdjela se brzo ispraznila. – neutral, correct.
• ✗ Zdjela brzo se ispraznila. – wrong clitic placement.
• ✗ Se zdjela brzo ispraznila. – also wrong; clitics almost never stand first.

If you add je, the clitic order is se je, not je se:

• ✓ Zdjela se je brzo ispraznila.
• ✗ Zdjela je se brzo ispraznila.

7. Can brzo move around? Are sentences like Zdjela se ispraznila brzo or Brzo se zdjela ispraznila possible?

Yes, brzo (quickly) is fairly mobile, and different positions change the emphasis slightly.

All of these are grammatically possible:

• Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.
  Neutral: basic word order, focus just on the fact + speed.

• Zdjela se ispraznila brzo.
  Slight extra emphasis on brzo (the speed is the new or contrastive information).

• Brzo se zdjela ispraznila.
  Emphasises brzo at the very start: Quickly, the bowl emptied; a bit more stylistic/expressive.

What you cannot do is break the clitic rule:

• ✗ Zdjela brzo se ispraznila. – wrong position for se.

8. What case is zdjela in here, and why?

Zdjela is in the nominative singular.

• It is the subject of the verb (the bowl is the thing that becomes empty).
• In Croatian, subjects are in the nominative; direct objects are typically in the accusative.

Compare:

• Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.
  Nominative subject zdjela = the bowl (emptied).
• Netko je brzo ispraznio zdjelu.
  Accusative zdjelu = the bowl (was emptied by someone).

9. How would you say “Someone/the children emptied the bowl quickly”, and what’s the difference in meaning compared to Zdjela se brzo ispraznila?

Examples with an explicit agent:

• Netko je brzo ispraznio zdjelu.
  = Someone emptied the bowl quickly.

• Djeca su brzo ispraznila zdjelu.
  = The children emptied the bowl quickly.

Differences:

• Zdjela se brzo ispraznila.
  Focus on the bowl and its change of state; the agent is unknown/irrelevant/obvious.

• Djeca su brzo ispraznila zdjelu.
  Focus on who did the action and what they did to the bowl (transitive verb + object).

10. How do you pronounce Zdjela?

Approximate pronunciation for an English speaker:

• Zdjela ≈ ZDYEH-lah

Details:

• zdj is a consonant cluster; dj is often realized together, something like dy in duty (British dyoo‑ty), but a bit harder.
• e is like e in bed.
• a is like a in father.
• Stress is on the first syllable: ZDYE‑la.