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60 More Useful Verbs and Verbal Patterns
Now, let me introduce a couple of very useful verb pairs. The first one is the main
way to express success and failure in Croatian:
uspijevati («) ~ uspjeti (uspije, uspio, uspjela) succeed ®
The impf. verb has the Standard stress shift to the 1st syllable (-ije- is usually one
syllable when inside a word), but the perf. verb is pronounced as three syllables in
the present tense: us-pi-je, like piti (pije) drink.
Unlike English, this verb takes a verb in inf – or an infinitive clause, i.e. an inf with an
object and possibly other words attached – as its object. It can be translated with
English succeed or manage:
Uspjeli smo riješiti problem A . We succeeded in solving the problem. ®
Uspjela je otvoriti prozor A . She managed to open the window.
Nisam uspio pročitati knjigu A . I failed to read the book.
This verb is not used to ‘manage household’ and similar things – only to manage to
do something.
Like trebati need/should, this verb pair can be – and often is – used in the ‘reverse’
mode: what is achieved (or not) is the subject (in N), and the person (or animal) who
was responsible is optionally expressed in DL. As usual, if the subject is a verb in inf,
it behaves like neuter singular:
Uspjelo nam DL je riješiti problem A . We succeeded in solving the problem.
Uspjelo joj DL je otvoriti prozor A . She managed to open the window.
Nije mi DL uspjelo pročitati knjigu A . I failed to read the book.
Note that problem, prozor and knjiga are not the subjects: the subjects are now the
verbs in inf: riješiti and so on.
In this mode, the verb pair is more versatile: the subject can be also a noun:
something that you succeeded in making (or failed to make). Now you must observe
the gender of subject in the past tense:
Kolač N je uspio. The cake turned out fine.
Uspio nam DL je kolač N . We succeeded in making the cake.
1pl
I have already explained important verbs derived from ići (ide, išao, išla) go and
stajati (staje) ~ stati (stane) stand, now I will show you two more important
‘families’. The first one is derived from the verb pair:
stavljati ~ staviti put, place
These verbs are simple to use – just use A for what you put, and a destination (unlike
in English!) for where you put something:
Stavio sam pivo A u frižider A . (colloq.) I’ve put the beer in the fridge.
1pl
3f
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