Questions & Answers about Rekla sam bok i otišla.
Why do rekla and otišla end in -la?
Because the speaker is female.
In Croatian past tense, the main verb appears in a form that agrees with the subject’s gender and number.
Here, rekla and otišla are feminine singular forms.
So:
- Rekla sam bok i otišla. = said by a woman
- Rekao sam bok i otišao. = said by a man
This is one of the big differences from English: Croatian past-tense forms often show the speaker’s gender.
What is sam doing in the sentence?
Sam is the auxiliary verb to be, used to form the Croatian past tense.
The pattern is:
- past participle
- present of biti
So here:
- rekla sam = I said
- otišla = went / left, with the auxiliary understood from the first part
More examples:
- Vidjela sam. = I saw.
- Došla sam. = I came.
For I, the auxiliary is sam.
Why is it rekla sam, not sam rekla?