Questions & Answers about Poslije svih tih obaveza spava mi se, ali mi se još ne ide kući bez kruha.
What does spava mi se mean, and how is it different from just spavam?
Spava mi se is a very common Croatian pattern meaning I feel sleepy or I feel like sleeping.
It is different from spavam, which simply means I am sleeping.
So:
- Spavam. = I am sleeping.
- Spava mi se. = I’m sleepy / I feel like sleeping.
Literally, spava mi se is something like sleep is happening to me or sleep comes over me, but you should treat it as an idiomatic pattern.
This same pattern appears with other verbs too:
- Jede mi se. = I feel like eating.
- Pije mi se. = I feel like drinking.
- Pleše mi se. = I feel like dancing.
Why is it mi se? What do those little words mean?
In this sentence:
- mi is the dative pronoun meaning to me
- se is a reflexive particle, but here it is part of an impersonal expression
Together, in patterns like spava mi se or ide mi se, they create the idea of I feel like... or I am in the mood to...
So:
- spava mi se = sleepiness is coming to me
- ne ide mi se kući = I do not feel like going home
English does not build this idea the same way, so it is best to learn the whole pattern as a chunk.
Why are spava and ide in the 3rd person singular if the meaning is about I?
Because this is an impersonal construction.
Croatian often expresses feelings, urges, or bodily states with a verb in 3rd person singular plus a dative experiencer:
The person who feels the urge is not the grammatical subject in the usual way. Instead, that person appears in the dative:
- mi = to me
- ti = to you
- mu / joj = to him / her
- nam = to us
Examples:
- Spava ti se. = You feel sleepy.
- Ne radi nam se. = We don’t feel like working.
So the sentence does not use idem because it is not the normal personal verb form I go. It is the idiom ide mi se = I feel like going.
Why is it poslije svih tih obaveza? Why are all those words in that form?
Because poslije requires the genitive case.
So after poslije, you need:
- svih = genitive plural of svi = all
- tih = genitive plural of taj = those
- obaveza = genitive plural of obaveza = obligations
That is why you get:
- poslije svih tih obaveza = after all those obligations
A useful point: obaveza looks the same in:
- nominative singular: obaveza
- genitive plural: obaveza
This is normal for some feminine nouns. The case is shown by the surrounding words, especially svih tih.
Could I also say nakon svih tih obaveza instead of poslije svih tih obaveza?
Yes. Both poslije and nakon can mean after, and both take the genitive.
So both are possible:
- Poslije svih tih obaveza...
- Nakon svih tih obaveza...
In many contexts they are interchangeable. Very roughly:
- nakon can sound a bit more neutral or formal
- poslije can sound a bit more everyday in many varieties
But both are standard and natural.
Why is it mi se još ne ide? What does još ne add?
Još ne means still not or not yet, depending on context.
Here it means:
- mi se još ne ide kući = I still don’t feel like going home
So još adds the idea that the feeling continues:
- Ne ide mi se kući. = I don’t feel like going home.
- Još mi se ne ide kući. = I still don’t feel like going home.
In this sentence, the speaker is tired, but even so, they still do not want to go home yet, because of the bread.
Why is there no preposition before kući? Why not something like u kuću?
Because kući is the normal idiomatic way to say home after verbs of motion.
So Croatian says:
- Idem kući. = I’m going home.
- Došao sam kući. = I came home.
This is similar to English go home, where you also do not say go to home.
By contrast:
- u kuću means into the house
- kući means home, as a fixed destination expression
Also compare:
- Kod kuće sam. = I am at home.
- Idem kući. = I am going home.
So kući here is exactly what you want.
Why is it bez kruha and not bez kruh?
Because bez always takes the genitive case.
The noun is:
- nominative: kruh = bread
After bez, it becomes:
- genitive: kruha
So:
- bez kruha = without bread
This is just normal case government:
- bez vode = without water
- bez novca = without money
- bez kruha = without bread
Is kruha specifically Croatian? Would other varieties use a different word?
Yes, kruh / kruha is the usual Croatian word for bread.
In other varieties of the wider BCS area, you may often hear:
- hleb in Serbian
- hljeb in Bosnian and some other varieties
So the equivalent phrase could be:
- bez kruha in Croatian
- bez hleba in Serbian
- bez hljeba in Bosnian
All of these are regionally normal. Learners should be aware that vocabulary can vary by standard and region.
Why is the word order spava mi se, but later ali mi se još ne ide? Why do the little words move around?
This happens because mi and se are clitics. Croatian clitics usually appear near the beginning of the clause, often in second position.
So:
Spava mi se.
- The first stressed word is spava
- The clitics mi se come right after it
Ali mi se još ne ide kući...
- The clause starts with ali
- Then the clitics come early: mi se
That is why the sentence does not sound natural as something like:
- Spava se mi
- Ali još ne ide mi se
The clitics have preferred positions, and learners usually just need practice hearing and reading them in natural sentences.
Is this sentence fully natural Croatian, or is it a bit mixed regionally?
It is understandable and natural, but it does have a slightly mixed feel if you look closely at regional preferences.
For example:
- kruh is strongly associated with Croatian usage
- poslije is also used in Croatian, but some speakers might more often choose nakon
- obaveza is widely understood across the BCS area
So the sentence is perfectly understandable, but it is not unusual for real-life BCS sentences to combine words that feel a bit more common in one region or another. Learners will often see this kind of overlap.
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