Learn Hardcore Croatian: Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu. - Before I bought a dryer, I dried the laundry by hand on a clothesline.

kupila / sušila – the past participle of the verb (feminine singular)
sam – the auxiliary verb (biti = to be, 1st person singular present: sam)

Together they form the perfect tense:

(Ja) sam kupila – I bought / I have bought
(Ja) sam sušila – I dried / I used to dry

Croatian uses this same perfect tense for both English simple past (I bought, I dried) and present perfect (I have bought), depending on context.

Why do the verbs end in -la (kupila, sušila) and not -o or something else?

The -la ending shows that the speaker is female.

In Croatian, the past participle agrees with the gender and number of the subject:

ja sam kupio / sušio – I bought / I dried (speaker male)
ja sam kupila / sušila – I bought / I dried (speaker female)

So in your sentence, the implied subject is ja (I), and we know it’s a woman speaking because of kupila / sušila.

Why is it prije nego što and not just prije or prije nego?

When “before” is followed by a full clause with a conjugated verb, standard Croatian usually uses prije nego što:

Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, … – Before I bought a dryer, …

Structure:

prije – before
nego – than / rather than (here part of the fixed expression)
što – literally what/that, but here it acts as a subordinator, similar to “that” in English in some fixed phrases

You can sometimes hear prije nego sam kupila sušilicu in speech, but prije nego što is the recommended, more formal/standard version when followed by a full clause.

Use just prije + noun or infinitive when there is no conjugated verb:

Prije kupnje sušilice… – Before the purchase of the dryer…
Prije kupiti sušilicu – incorrect; you need a noun or a clause.

Could I say “Prije nego što kupim sušilicu” instead of “sam kupila sušilicu”?

You can, but it changes the time meaning.

Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, rublje sam sušila…
– Before I bought a dryer, I used to dry the laundry…
(both actions are in the past)
Prije nego što kupim sušilicu, rublje sušim…
– Before I buy a dryer, I dry the laundry…
(you’re talking about your current situation, before a future purchase)

So the original uses past tense in the subordinate clause because the whole situation is anchored in the past.

Why is sušilicu and not sušilica used here? Which case is this?

Sušilicu is in the accusative singular, because it is the direct object of kupila (bought what?).

Nominative (dictionary form):

sušilica – dryer

Accusative singular (feminine -a noun):

Vidim sušilicu. – I see the dryer.
Kupila sam sušilicu. – I bought a dryer.

So:

sušilica – subject: Sušilica radi. – The dryer is working.
sušilicu – object: Kupujem sušilicu. – I’m buying a dryer.

What is rublje exactly – is it singular or plural?

Rublje is a neuter singular mass noun meaning laundry / washing / clothes (for washing).

Even though in English you’d say the clothes (plural), in Croatian:

rublje behaves grammatically as singular neuter
it normally doesn’t have a plural in everyday language

Examples:

Prljavo rublje – dirty laundry
Rublje je čisto. – The laundry is clean. (verb is je, singular)

So in the sentence, rublje is the object of sušila (what did she dry? rublje).

Why is the word order “rublje sam sušila” instead of “sušila sam rublje”? Are both correct?

Both rublje sam sušila and sušila sam rublje are grammatically correct. The difference is in emphasis and information structure.

Rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu.
– The focus is a bit more on what you dried (the laundry), or you are contrasting it with something else.
– Typical when rublje is “old” information being continued.
Sušila sam rublje ručno na užetu.
– More neutral, close to English: I dried the laundry…
– Focus more on the action (sušila sam).

What you must respect is the position of sam (an enclitic). Croatian wants it in the second position in the clause (after the first stressed element):

Rublje sam sušila… (rublje = first stressed word → sam follows)
Sušila sam rublje… (sušila = first stressed word → sam follows)

You can’t put sam at the very end:

✗ Rublje sušila sam ručno… – ungrammatical in standard Croatian.

Why is sam repeated? Could I say it only once for the whole sentence?

You need one auxiliary verb per clause.

Your sentence has two finite clauses:

Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, …
… rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu.

So you must have sam in each clause:

sam kupila (in the first clause)
sam sušila (in the second clause)

You cannot let sam “cover” both verbs:

✗ Prije nego što kupila sušilicu, rublje sam sušila… – wrong
✗ Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, rublje sušila ručno… – wrong

Each finite verb in the perfect tense needs its own auxiliary.

What does ručno mean exactly, and why is it ručno and not rukom?

Ručno is an adverb meaning “by hand / manually”.

It comes from ručan (related to hand – ruka) → ručno (adverb form)
It answers “how?”: How did she dry the laundry? – ručno

Rukom is the instrumental singular of ruka (with the hand), and would usually refer more literally to using a hand as a tool:

Pisala sam rukom. – I wrote by hand (with a pen, not typing).

In your sentence, we’re describing the manner of drying, so ručno is the natural, idiomatic choice:
sušila sam rublje ručno – I dried the laundry by hand / manually.

Why is it na užetu and not na uže? What case is užetu?

Užetu is the locative singular of uže (rope, line).

The preposition na can take:

accusative – for motion onto something
locative – for position on something

Here we are talking about where the laundry hangs (static location), not movement:

Rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu.
– I dried the laundry by hand on a clothesline (on the rope).
– na + locative → na užetu

Compare:

Objesila sam rublje na uže. – I hung the laundry onto the rope. (motion → accusative)
Rublje visi na užetu. – The laundry is hanging on the rope. (location → locative)

What is the role of the comma in this sentence? Is it always required?

Yes, here the comma is required. It separates a subordinate clause of time from the main clause.

Structure:

Prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, – subordinate clause (before I bought a dryer)
rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu. – main clause (I dried the laundry…)

In standard Croatian, when a subordinate clause comes first, you normally put a comma before the main clause:

Kad sam došla kući, legla sam spavati.
Dok je padao snijeg, igrali smo se vani.

So the comma in your sentence follows this same rule.

Why is kupila used and not kupovala? Is there a difference?

Yes, this is about aspect (perfective vs. imperfective).

kupiti – perfective: to buy (as a single completed act)
- sam kupila – I bought (one specific event)
kupovati – imperfective: to be buying / to buy repeatedly
- sam kupovala – I was buying / I used to buy (repeatedly, habitually)

In prije nego što sam kupila sušilicu, we’re referring to one specific completed purchase. That’s why kupila (perfective) is used.

If you said prije nego što sam kupovala sušilicu, it would sound like you were buying it repeatedly, which doesn’t fit the context of getting a dryer once.

Why is sušila (imperfective) used, not osušila (perfective)?

Again, aspect:

sušiti – imperfective: to dry, to be drying, to used to dry (ongoing or repeated)
osušiti – perfective: to dry completely (bring to a finished result)

In the sentence, you’re talking about what you used to do habitually before you bought a dryer:

rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu
– I used to dry the laundry by hand on a clothesline.

For habitual / repeated actions in the past, Croatian uses an imperfective verb in the perfect tense → sam sušila.

Osušila would stress the result of one particular drying action:

Juče sam osušila rublje na užetu. – Yesterday I dried the laundry (completely) on the line. (one event, result-focused)

Is there a special tense in Croatian for “used to” like in English, or is it just sušila sam?

Croatian does not have a separate tense for “used to”.

To express a past habit, Croatian typically uses:

imperfective verb
in the perfect tense

Exactly as in your sentence:

Rublje sam sušila ručno na užetu.
– Depending on context, this can mean:
- I dried the laundry by hand on a clothesline.
- I used to dry the laundry by hand on a clothesline.

The imperfective aspect + context gives the “used to” meaning; no extra auxiliary is needed.

Could I drop ja and just say sam kupila / sam sušila?

You can drop the subject pronoun ja, and in fact that’s the normal thing to do in Croatian.

Ja sam kupila sušilicu. – correct, but often only used for emphasis (I bought it, not someone else).
(Ja) sam kupila sušilicu. – normally said as Sam kupila sušilicu.

In your sentence, the subject ja is understood from the verb form (sam kupila, sam sušila) and from the feminine -la ending, so it’s not written.

You cannot drop sam, but you can drop ja.