Learn Hardcore Croatian: Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan. - The child intentionally left a message on the table to remind the mother about the school holiday.

Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan.

The child intentionally left a message on the table to remind the mother about the school holiday.

Breakdown of Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan.

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Questions & Answers about Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan.

Why is je right after Dijete and not later in the sentence?

In Croatian, short forms of the verb biti (je, sam, si, smo, ste, su) behave as clitics. A big rule for clitics is:

They like to stand in second position in the clause.

So in a neutral sentence, the pattern is:

first: the first stressed word/phrase (Dijete)
second: the clitic (je)
then: the rest (namjerno ostavilo poruku…)

That’s why we get:

Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku…

and not

✗ Dijete namjerno je ostavilo poruku… (sounds wrong/very odd)
✗ Dijete je ostavilo namjerno poruku… (possible but much less natural)

If you move another word or phrase to the front, the clitic moves to second position after that:

Namjerno je dijete ostavilo poruku…
(Namjerno is first, so je comes right after it.)

Why does the verb form end in -o (ostavilo) and not -a or -o (ostavila / ostavio)?

The past participle in Croatian agrees in gender and number with the subject.

dijete “child” is grammatically neuter singular.
The neuter singular past participle ends in -lo.

So:

Dijete je ostavilo poruku. – neuter singular
Dječak je ostavio poruku. – masculine singular
Djevojčica je ostavila poruku. – feminine singular
Djeca su ostavila poruku. – plural (djeca is grammatically plural, so ostavila)

Why is it poruku and mamu (with -u) and not just poruka and mama?

Poruku and mamu are in the accusative case, because they are direct objects of the verbs:

ostaviti (što?) – to leave (what?) → poruku
podsjetiti (koga?) – to remind (whom?) → mamu

Patterns:

nominative: poruka, mama (dictionary form)
accusative: poruku, mamu

So in the sentence:

ostavilo poruku – left a message
podsjeti mamu – remind (his/her) mother

Why is it na stolu and not na stol?

The preposition na can take either:

Accusative → movement onto something (where to?)
Locative → position on something (where?)

Compare:

Stavio je poruku na stol. – He put the message onto the table. (movement → na + accusative)
Poruka je na stolu. – The message is on the table. (location → na + locative)

In ostaviti poruku na stolu, the focus is on the resulting location (where the message is), so na stolu (locative) is natural:

stol (nom.) → stolu (locative)

You can hear na stol with some verbs of movement, but with ostaviti the standard, neutral form here is na stolu.

How does da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan work grammatically?

This is a purpose clause:

da
- present tense of a (usually perfective) verb
  → in order to / so that (someone) does something

Here:

da podsjeti = so that (he/she/the child) reminds
mamu = direct object (accusative, whom?)
na školski blagdan = of what? (more below)

So the whole part means:

da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan
= so that (the child) reminds (his/her) mother about the school holiday.

The subject of podsjeti is the same as the subject of ostavilo (dijete), so it’s not repeated.

Why is the form podsjeti and not podsjetiti?

Podsjetiti is the infinitive (“to remind”).
In the sentence we need the present tense, 3rd person singular, after da.

Conjugation of podsjetiti (perfective) in the present:

ja podsjetim
ti podsjetiš
on/ona/ono podsjeti
mi podsjetimo
vi podsjetite
oni/one/ona podsjete

So:

da podsjeti = so that he/she/it reminds

Using the infinitive ✗ da podsjetiti would be wrong.

Why is it na školski blagdan and not some other preposition or case?

The verb podsjetiti takes the pattern:

podsjetiti (koga?) na (što?)
= remind someone of/about something

So:

podsjetiti mamu (koga? – accusative)
na školski blagdan (na što? – accusative)

That’s why both nouns are in the accusative:

mamu – acc. of mama
školski blagdan – acc. of školski blagdan
(masculine inanimate: nominative and accusative look the same)

Examples with the same pattern:

Podsjeti me na sastanak. – Remind me of the meeting.
Podsjetio ju je na obećanje. – He reminded her of the promise.

What exactly does školski blagdan mean, and could I also say školski praznik?

blagdan – usually refers to a holiday/feast day, often religious or official (e.g. Christmas, All Saints).
praznik – a broader holiday word; can be secular, and also used for days off work/school.

Školski blagdan here suggests an official school holiday/feast day (a specific date the school observes).

You could hear školski praznik, but that can sound more like a school holiday in general or school break. In many contexts they overlap, but:

školski blagdan – a specific day (e.g. patron saint of the school)
školski praznici – school holidays (longer periods, e.g. summer break)

Why is the adjective školski in that form? Why not školska or školsko?

Adjectives agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Blagdan is:

masculine
singular
accusative (but masculine inanimate has the same form in nominative and accusative)

So the adjective must also be:

masculine, singular, accusative → školski

Compare:

školski blagdan (masc.) – school holiday (a day)
školska torba (fem.) – school bag
školsko dvorište (neut.) – school yard

Why isn’t there a possessive pronoun like svoju mamu (“his/her mother”)?

In Croatian, with close family members, the possessive pronoun is often omitted when it’s obvious whose relative it is from the context.

Here, the subject is dijete (the child), so it’s naturally understood that mamu is its own mother.

da podsjeti mamu is normally understood as
so that (he/she) reminds his/her own mother.

You can say svoju mamu to emphasize whose mother:

…da podsjeti svoju mamu na školski blagdan.
→ sounds a bit more explicit, slightly more emphatic, but not required.

Can the word order be changed? For example, can I start with Poruku?

Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible; changes mostly affect emphasis and focus, not basic meaning.

Some possibilities (all grammatically OK, slightly different emphasis):

Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan.
– neutral: focus on the whole event.
Poruku je dijete namjerno ostavilo na stolu da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan.
– emphasizes poruku (the message): It was the message that the child deliberately left…
Na stolu je dijete namjerno ostavilo poruku da podsjeti mamu…
– emphasizes where it left the message.

You must always keep:

clitic je in (rough) second position of the clause
the internal groups intact:
- na stolu
- da podsjeti mamu na školski blagdan

Where should namjerno go? Could I say Dijete je ostavilo namjerno poruku…?

The most natural place for adverbs like namjerno is near the verb, often right after the clitic:

Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku… – very natural
Dijete je ostavilo namjerno poruku… – understandable, but sounds awkward/marked

Other acceptable positions (with changes in emphasis):

Namjerno je dijete ostavilo poruku… – emphasizes that it was intentional, maybe contrasting with some other possibility.

So, stick with:

Dijete je namjerno ostavilo poruku… as your default.

Why is ostaviti used (perfective) and not ostavljati (imperfective)?

Croatian distinguishes:

perfective verbs → focus on a single, completed action
imperfective verbs → focus on ongoing, repeated, or habitual action

Here, the child left one specific message, as a completed action with a result (the message is there on the table). That’s why the perfective ostaviti is used:

Dijete je ostavilo poruku… – The child (once) left a message…

If you use the imperfective ostavljati:

Dijete je ostavljalo poruke…
= The child was leaving messages / used to leave messages… (repeated / ongoing)

So ostavilo matches the idea of one deliberate, completed act.