Poslije sastanka svratila sam u mesnicu po piletinu, ali je mesar rekao da je sve već prodano.

to be

Breakdown of Poslije sastanka svratila sam u mesnicu po piletinu, ali je mesar rekao da je sve već prodano.

• u: to
• ali: but
• poslije: after

Questions & Answers about Poslije sastanka svratila sam u mesnicu po piletinu, ali je mesar rekao da je sve već prodano.

Why is the sentence using svratila sam instead of a single past-tense verb?

Croatian commonly forms the past tense with two parts:

• the l-participle: svratila
• the present-tense auxiliary to be: sam

So:

• svratila sam = I dropped by / I stopped by

This is the normal past-tense pattern in Croatian:

• radio sam = I worked
• došla sam = I came
• rekao je = he said

So svratila sam is not unusual at all; it is the standard past form.

Why is it svratila sam and not svratio sam?

The ending shows the gender of the speaker in the past tense.

• svratila sam = I dropped by, said by a female
• svratio sam = I dropped by, said by a male

In Croatian past-tense forms, the participle agrees with the subject in gender and number.

The same thing happens later in the sentence:

• mesar rekao = the butcher said
  because mesar is masculine

What exactly does svratiti mean here?