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69 Memories, Expectations and Fear
There are three areas in Croatian – memory, expectations and fears – which are a bit
different than in English. Each has a twist.
First, these verb pairs are used to express remembering and forgetting:
pamtiti ~~ za- (+ A/CC) memorize, remember
sjećati se² ~~ sjetiti se² (+ G/inf/CC) remember, recall
zaboravljati ~ zaboraviti (+ A/inf/CC) forget
The twist is that Croatian distinguishes storing into memory (zapamtiti) and
retrieving something from memory (sjetiti se²) by means of two perfective verbs (as
you can see from the double tildes, they are not ordinary perf. verbs, but it’s not
important for the moment). However, the two impf. verbs – pamtiti and sjećati se²
– largely overlap in meaning; the latter verb is much more common in speech. In the
meantime, English uses usually just remember:
Zapamtio sam [gdje je auto N ]. I remembered [where the car is]. (and now I m
know it)
Sjećam se [gdje je auto N ]. I recall [where the car is]. (I can get it from my m
memory)
The perf. verb sjetiti se² in past tense is often used to express that you have recalled
something just now (and previously you couldn’t):
Sjetila sam se gdje je auto N . I remember now where the car is. (female
m
speaking)
It’s also very common to use this verb when you remembered (or didn’t) to do
something (expressed in inf), so you did it (or didn’t):
Jesi li se sjetio zatvoriti prozor A ? Did you remember to close the window?
If you didn’t remember at some moment, you can also use the verb zaboraviti perf.
forget, it’s not necessarily permanent loss of memory:
Nisam se sjetio zatvoriti prozor A . I didn’t remember to close the window.
Zaboravio sam zatvoriti prozor A . I forgot to close the window.
If you forget something, it’s simply an object in A; but you can also forget about
some event you were supposed to attend, or any other noun that implies your
involvement: then, na¨ + A is used as the object:
Zaboravio sam jaknu A ! I forgot my jacket!
Zaboravio sam na utakmicu A ! I forgot about the match!
These differences don’t really correspond to English forget vs. forget about. In most
cases, English forget about corresponds to a simple object in A in Croatian.
However, to memorize that you have to do something, you cannot use just inf – a