Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?

Can you remind me about the meeting?

Breakdown of Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?

• moći: to be able to
• me: me
• sastanak: meeting
• podsjetiti: to remind
• na: about

Questions & Answers about Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?

Why do we have both možeš and li in this question? Isn’t možeš already “can you”?

Možeš is literally “you can” (2nd person singular of moći, “to be able, can”).
The particle li is what turns the sentence into a yes–no question in a clear, neutral way.

• Možeš me podsjetiti na sastanak. = You can remind me about the meeting. (statement)
• Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak? = Can you remind me about the meeting? (question)

Using li is the standard, “textbook” way to form yes–no questions in Croatian, especially in writing and in more neutral/formal speech.

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Can I ask the question without li, like Možeš me podsjetiti na sastanak? with rising intonation?

Yes, you can. In everyday speech, Croatians often just raise their intonation and don’t use li:

• Možeš me podsjetiti na sastanak? (spoken, informal, rising intonation)

This is completely natural in conversation.
However:

• Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak? sounds a bit more neutral/standard and is preferred in writing or when you want clearly marked grammar rather than relying only on intonation.

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What exactly is me, what case is it, and why does it go in that position?

Me is the unstressed object pronoun meaning “me”.

• It is in the accusative case (direct object).
• It refers to the person who is being reminded: “remind me”.

Croatian has a group of short, unstressed pronouns called clitics (me, te, ga, je, mi, ti, mu, im, se etc.). These normally go in second position in the clause, after the first stressed word (here: Možeš) and after li, which is also a clitic:

• Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?
  
  1. Možeš – first stressed word
  2. li – first clitic
  3. me – second clitic
  4. podsjetiti na sastanak – rest of the sentence

So its position is fixed by clitic rules, not by emphasis.

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Can I say Možeš li podsjetiti me na sastanak? instead?

No, that sounds wrong to native speakers.

With clitic pronouns like me, normal word order rules don’t apply. They must appear in the clitic “slot”:

❌ Možeš li podsjetiti me na sastanak?
✅ Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?

Putting me after podsjetiti would be acceptable only if you used the full stressed form mene for emphasis, and even then it would sound marked and special:

• Možeš li podsjetiti mene na sastanak, a ne njega?
  (Can you remind me about the meeting, not him?)

But in the neutral sentence, you want the short form me in clitic position.

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Why is the second verb an infinitive (podsjetiti) and not a conjugated verb like podsjetiš?

In Croatian, with modal verbs like moći (to be able, can), the second verb is normally in the infinitive:

• možeš + podsjetiti = you can + (to) remind

So:

• ✅ Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?
• ❌ Možeš li me podsjetiš na sastanak? (ungrammatical)

This is similar to English “Can you remind me…?” (you also don’t say “Can you reminds me…?”). The form podsjetiš would be used alone:

• Podsjetiš me na sastanak. = You remind me about the meeting. (present tense statement, not a modal construction)

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What’s the difference between podsjetiti and podsjećati?

Both relate to “reminding”, but they differ in aspect:

• podsjetiti – perfective (completed, one-time action)

  • Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?
    = Can you (at some point) remind me about the meeting?

• podsjećati – imperfective (ongoing, repeated action)

  • On me stalno podsjeća na sastanak.
    = He keeps reminding me about the meeting.

In your sentence, you want someone to remind you once (e.g. later today), so the perfective infinitive podsjetiti is correct and natural.

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Why is it na sastanak and not na sastanku or something else?

The verb podsjetiti (nekoga) na (nešto) always takes na + accusative for the thing you’re being reminded of:

• nekoga podsjetiti na što = to remind someone of/about something

Here:

• na (preposition) + sastanak (accusative singular)
  → na sastanak

Compare:

• na sastanak (accusative) – to / for the meeting, “about the meeting” in this construction
• na sastanku (locative) – at the meeting (location):
  
  • Vidimo se na sastanku. = See you at the meeting.

So in podsjetiti na, the “na” pattern is fixed, and you must use the accusative.

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Does na sastanak literally mean “to the meeting”? Why is it translated “about the meeting”?

Literally, na sastanak can mean “to the meeting” (direction), but in combination with podsjetiti na the whole phrase is understood as:

• podsjetiti nekoga na sastanak = to remind someone about the meeting / of the meeting

This is a common situation where you can’t translate word-for-word:

• English: remind me about the meeting
• Croatian: podsjeti me na sastanak

The preposition na is chosen by the verb podsjetiti, not directly by the English meaning.

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Is Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak? formal or informal?

The verb form možeš is 2nd person singular (“you” for one person), which is informal when addressing an adult.

• Informal singular:

  • Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak? (to a friend/colleague you say ti)

• Politer/formal (or plural “you”):

  • Možete li me podsjetiti na sastanak? (to someone you address as Vi, or to several people)

So to sound polite to a stranger, older person, or in a formal email, you’d usually say:

• Možete li me podsjetiti na sastanak?

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How could I make this even more polite, like “Could you remind me about the meeting?” instead of just “Can you…”?

A softer, more tentative version uses a conditional of “can”:

• Bi li me mogao podsjetiti na sastanak? (to a man)
• Bi li me mogla podsjetiti na sastanak? (to a woman)

Literally: “Would you be able to remind me about the meeting?”

Formal/plural version:

• Biste li me mogli podsjetiti na sastanak?

In everyday informal speech, Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak? is already quite polite; the conditional just makes it more “would you mind…” in tone.

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Could I use hoćeš instead of možeš, like Hoćeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?? What’s the difference?

Yes, you can, but the meaning changes slightly:

• Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?
  → Focus on ability / possibility: Are you able to / can you remind me?

• Hoćeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?
  → Focus on willingness / intention: Will you / are you willing to remind me?

In many informal situations the difference is small, but native speakers do feel that:

• Možeš li…? is a bit more neutral/polite,
• Hoćeš li…? can sound more like asking for a promise or checking if the person wants to do it.

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How do you pronounce Možeš li me podsjetiti na sastanak?, especially ž and š?

Approximate pronunciation (stressed syllables in caps):

• MO-žeš li me pod-ZJE-ti-ti na SA-sta-nak?

Notes:

• ž = like the s in English “measure”, “vision”.
  
  • možeš ≈ “MO-zhe-sh”
• š = like sh in English “ship”.
  
  • možeš ends with that sound: “-sh”
• dj / d + j as in podsjetiti is usually pronounced close to [dʑ] (similar to the “j” in “jeans” but a bit softer and more palatal).

There is only one main stress in the sentence (on MO- of Možeš), with the rest more lightly stressed in natural speech.