Pokisnula sam jutros jer nisam ponijela kišobran.

to be

Breakdown of Pokisnula sam jutros jer nisam ponijela kišobran.

• ne: not
• jer: because
• jutros: this morning

Questions & Answers about Pokisnula sam jutros jer nisam ponijela kišobran.

Why is it pokisnula sam and not sam pokisnula?

In Croatian past tense, the auxiliary sam is a clitic, and clitics usually go in the second position of the clause.

So in Pokisnula sam jutros..., the participle pokisnula comes first, and sam follows it.

A very common alternative is:

• Jutros sam pokisnula...

That also sounds natural, because sam is still in second position, after jutros.

So the main point is:

• sam usually does not stand freely at the very beginning
• it usually comes after the first stressed element in the clause

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Why does it say pokisnula and ponijela? What does the -la ending show?

The ending -la shows that the speaker is female.

In Croatian past tense, the main verb agrees with the subject in gender and number:

• masculine singular: pokisnuo sam, ponio sam
• feminine singular: pokisnula sam, ponijela sam
• neuter singular: pokisnulo je
• plural forms also change

So this sentence tells you that the speaker is a woman.

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If a man said the same sentence, what would it look like?