Breakdown of I printer u uredu je pokvaren, pa službenica kaže da donesem sve već fotokopirano.
Questions & Answers about I printer u uredu je pokvaren, pa službenica kaže da donesem sve već fotokopirano.
At the start of a sentence, i usually means and / also. In this context it often adds information like “And the printer in the office is broken (too)”.
It’s not the English emphatic “I” (the pronoun); it’s the Croatian conjunction i.
Printer is a common loanword in Croatian (along with pisač, which is also used).
In Croatian, printer is typically masculine:
- printer je pokvaren (masc. predicate adjective pokvaren)
- genitive: printera, locative: printeru, etc.
u uredu uses the preposition u + locative to mean in the office (location).
- nominative: ured
- locative: uredu
So u uredu = in the office.
Because it agrees with printer, which is masculine singular. Predicate adjectives match the subject in gender and number:
- printer (m. sg.) je pokvaren
If it were a feminine noun: mašina je pokvarena; neuter: računalo je pokvareno.
je is the 3rd person singular present of biti (to be). It links the subject to the predicate adjective:
- printer je pokvaren = the printer is broken.
pa is a connector meaning something like so / and so / therefore, often used in everyday speech to show consequence:
- …je pokvaren, pa… = …is broken, so…
By contrast: - jer / zato što mean because and give a reason, not a result.
Because it’s linking two clauses:
1) printer u uredu je pokvaren
2) službenica kaže…
A comma before pa is common when pa introduces a new clause with a consequence or continuation.
službenica is a female clerk / office worker / official (female), someone working in an administrative role.
It can overlap with secretary in some situations, but it’s broader and often more like clerk.
Croatian often omits the indirect object pronoun when it’s obvious from context.
- službenica kaže da donesem… = the clerk says (to me) that I should bring…
You can add it for clarity/emphasis: službenica mi kaže da donesem….
Croatian commonly uses da + present tense where English uses an infinitive or a “should” construction:
- kaže da donesem ≈ she says (that) I should bring / to bring
This da-clause often expresses a request, instruction, or reported directive.
Because the sentence reports what she says, and the action is framed from the speaker’s perspective: that I bring.
donesem is 1st person singular present (from donijeti, perfective). It’s very natural after da when reporting instructions addressed to “me”.
sve means everything, and it behaves like a neuter singular form in many contexts, so the participle matches it:
- sve (neuter) fotokopirano (neuter) = everything photocopied
Here fotokopirano is a past passive participle used like an adjective/result state: already photocopied.
već = already adds the idea that the copying should be done before you bring it.
Word order is flexible, but it changes emphasis:
- da donesem sve već fotokopirano: neutral, focuses on everything being photocopied already.
- da donesem već sve fotokopirano: puts more emphasis on already (like “bring it already photocopied”).
The meaning stays basically the same; it’s mostly about what you highlight.