Questions & Answers about Poslije svih tih obaveza spava mi se, ali mi se još ne ide kući bez kruha.
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.
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.