Prošli tjedan imali smo ispit iz hrvatskog.

to be

Breakdown of Prošli tjedan imali smo ispit iz hrvatskog.

• imati: to have
• hrvatski: Croatian
• iz: from

Questions & Answers about Prošli tjedan imali smo ispit iz hrvatskog.

Why is there no word for “we” in the sentence? Shouldn’t it be “mi smo imali”?

Croatian usually omits subject pronouns (like ja, ti, mi) because the verb ending already shows the person and number.

• imali smo = we had
  • -li: past participle, plural
  • smo: 1st person plural (we)

So imali smo ispit already means we had an exam.
You can say Mi smo imali ispit iz hrvatskog if you want to emphasize we (as opposed to someone else), but in neutral speech you typically drop mi.

What does “imali smo” literally mean, and how is the past tense formed in Croatian?