Breakdown of Ako mi se jakna ne svidi, mogu tražiti povrat novca.
Questions & Answers about Ako mi se jakna ne svidi, mogu tražiti povrat novca.
Croatian often expresses liking with the verb svidjeti se (literally “to be pleasing”), where the thing is the grammatical subject and the person is an indirect object in the dative:
- Jakna (the jacket) = subject (nominative)
- mi = “to me” (dative experiencer)
- se = part of this verb pattern (reflexive clitic)
So Jakna mi se sviđa = “The jacket is pleasing to me” → “I like the jacket.”
They’re different aspectual forms used in different contexts:
- sviđa (se) is the imperfective/present-style form: “I like it / I’m liking it (generally).”
- svidi (se) is the perfective form: “I come to like it / I end up liking it (as a one-time outcome).”
In Ako mi se jakna ne svidi, the condition is about a result after you try/see the jacket (a single evaluation), so Croatian prefers the perfective svidi.
Croatian commonly uses:
- Ako + (perfective) present to express a future condition:
Ako mi se jakna ne svidi = “If I don’t end up liking the jacket (when I see/try it).” - mogu (present) to express ability/permission in general: “I can / I’m allowed to.”
It’s normal that the grammar looks “present,” but the meaning is conditional/future.
mi is the dative form of ja (“to me”). With svidjeti se, the person who likes something is in the dative:
- Meni se sviđa / Mi se sviđa = “I like it” (literally “It pleases me”)
Meni is the full form (more emphasis), mi is the clitic (unstressed, typical in neutral sentences).
Not in the English “myself” sense. With svidjeti se, se is part of the standard verb construction and doesn’t mean the jacket “likes itself.”
Many Croatian verbs are used with se as part of their normal grammar (often called “reflexive verbs”), and svidjeti se is one of them.
Croatian clitics follow a typical internal order. A very common sequence is:
1) dative clitic (mi)
2) se
So mi se is the neutral, most expected order in standard Croatian.
In Croatian, ne usually comes directly before the verb form it negates:
- svidi → ne svidi Clitics like mi se often stay in their clitic position, while ne attaches to the verb.
So mi se ne svidi is the normal pattern.
Croatian typically uses a comma to separate a subordinate clause introduced by ako (“if”) from the main clause, especially when the ako-clause comes first:
- Ako ..., mogu ...
If the main clause comes first, the comma is often omitted or depends on style.
jakna is nominative because it’s the grammatical subject of svidjeti se:
- Jakna mi se sviđa/svidi = “The jacket pleases me / I like the jacket.”
Even though English treats “I” as the subject (“I like…”), Croatian treats the liked thing as the subject in this construction.
mogu expresses ability/permission/possibility: “I can / I’m allowed to / I’m able to.”
moram would mean obligation: “I must.”
So mogu tražiti povrat novca means requesting a refund is an available option, not a requirement.
Yes, both are possible with a nuance:
- tražiti (imperfective): “to ask for / to request” in a general or process sense (neutral, common in statements of policy).
- zatražiti (perfective): “to make the request (once), to submit the request.”
In this sentence, mogu tražiti sounds like “I can request (a refund)” as a general right/possibility. mogu zatražiti would sound slightly more “I can file the request.”
Because novca is genitive singular of novac (“money”). Croatian commonly uses genitive after nouns that mean an amount, type, or “of X” relation:
- povrat (čega?) novca = “refund (of what?) of money”
It’s similar to “a refund of money,” but Croatian expresses that relationship with the genitive case.