Breakdown of Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu na časopis, stiže mi ljubazna obavijest e‑mailom.
Questions & Answers about Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu na časopis, stiže mi ljubazna obavijest e‑mailom.
In Croatian, the present tense is normally used in if-clauses to talk about general or future situations.
- Ako zaboravim platiti… literally: If I forget to pay…
This naturally refers to any future time when that might happen.
Also, zaboraviti is a perfective verb. The so‑called present of perfective verbs often has a future meaning:
- zaboravim = I forget / I will forget (on some occasion)
So Ako zaboravim platiti… is the normal way to say If I (ever) forget to pay… in Croatian. You don’t add ću inside the ako-clause.
In standard Croatian, you do not use ću in the if-clause when talking about a condition.
You say:
- ✅ Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu…
(If I forget to pay the subscription…)
but not:
- ❌ Ako ću zaboraviti platiti pretplatu…
The future auxiliary ću is used in the main clause, if needed:
- Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu, dobit ću ljubaznu obavijest.
If I forget to pay the subscription, I will receive a polite notice.
- zaboravim comes from zaboraviti (perfective)
- zaboravljam comes from zaboravljati (imperfective)
In this sentence:
- Ako zaboravim platiti… = If I (ever) forget to pay (on a given occasion)
– a single event, which is exactly what you want for an individual missed payment.
If you said:
- Ako zaboravljam platiti pretplatu…
it would sound like you regularly / habitually forget to pay, or have an ongoing problem with forgetting. That’s unusual here, and not the natural way to express the idea in this sentence.
Both patterns exist, but there’s a difference in style and frequency:
zaboraviti + infinitive is very common and neutral:
- zaboravim platiti pretplatu – I forget to pay the subscription
zaboraviti + da + present is also possible in many contexts, but in this exact sentence zaboravim da platim pretplatu sounds less natural, a bit heavier, and not as idiomatic as the infinitive version.
For actions that you forget to perform (to pay, to write, to call), zaboraviti + infinitive is the go‑to structure.
The direct object of platiti (to pay) is in the accusative:
- nominative: pretplata (subscription)
- accusative: pretplatu
You are paying what? → pretplatu:
- platiti pretplatu – to pay the subscription
- Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu… – If I forget to pay the subscription…
So pretplatu is simply the direct object of platiti.
In Croatian, pretplata (subscription) typically uses the preposition na to show what you are subscribed to:
- pretplata na časopis – subscription to a magazine
- pretplata na novine – subscription to a newspaper
- pretplata na internet – internet subscription
So the collocation pretplata na + accusative is standard.
You can sometimes hear pretplata za časopis, but pretplata na časopis is the usual, idiomatic form and is what learners should prefer.
mi is the unstressed dative form of ja (I), meaning “to me” / “for me”.
- stiže – arrives
- mi – to me
- ljubazna obavijest – a polite notice
So stiže mi ljubazna obavijest = a polite notice arrives to me → I receive a polite notice.
As for the position:
- mi is a clitic (a short, unstressed pronoun)
- Croatian clitics usually appear in second position in the clause, after the first stressed word or phrase
Here, the first stressed element is stiže, so the clitic follows it:
- stiže mi ljubazna obavijest…
Other natural word orders are possible, but mi will still stay in a clitic position:
- Ljubazna obavijest mi stiže e‑mailom.
- E‑mailom mi stiže ljubazna obavijest.
e‑mailom is instrumental singular of e‑mail.
The instrumental case without a preposition is often used to express the means or instrument by which something is done:
- pisati olovkom – to write with a pen
- poslati poštom – to send by mail
- poslati e‑mailom – to send by e‑mail
So:
- stiže mi ljubazna obavijest e‑mailom
literally: a polite notice arrives to me by e‑mail.
This is a general conditional: it describes what normally happens if a certain condition is met.
Croatian typically uses the present tense in both parts for such “whenever this happens, that happens” type sentences:
- Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu, stiže mi ljubazna obavijest.
If I forget to pay the subscription, I (normally) receive a polite notice.
If you want to highlight a specific future outcome, you can use future in the main clause:
- Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu, stići će mi ljubazna obavijest.
If I forget to pay the subscription, a polite notice will arrive (on that occasion).
Yes. In Croatian, you normally separate the conditional clause from the main clause with a comma, especially when the ako-clause comes first:
- Ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu na časopis, stiže mi ljubazna obavijest e‑mailom.
If you reverse the order, you usually still keep the comma:
- Ljubazna obavijest mi stiže e‑mailom, ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu na časopis.
Croatian has no articles (no words like “a”, “an”, “the”).
- ljubazna obavijest can mean “a polite notice” or “the polite notice”, depending on context.
The definiteness or indefiniteness is understood from:
- the context,
- word order,
- whether it’s something already known or being mentioned for the first time.
In this sentence, in English we naturally say “a polite notice”, so we translate it that way, but in Croatian there’s just ljubazna obavijest.
Yes, you can move the clauses and still be correct. For example:
- Ljubazna obavijest mi stiže e‑mailom, ako zaboravim platiti pretplatu na časopis.
Meaning stays the same. What changes is the focus:
- Original: starts with the condition (if I forget to pay…)
- Reordered: starts with the result (a polite notice arrives by e‑mail…)
In both cases, the grammar (tenses, cases, clitic placement) stays the same.