EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 69 Memories, Expectaons and Fear 402 / 600
Bojim se da netko N ne dođe. I’m afraid somebody might come. bojati se | doći
Of course, the same automatic-but-‘empty’ negation applies to (bude):
Bojim se da ne bude prekasno. I’m afraid it might be too late.
bojati se
Keep in mind that it’s not mandatory to use (bude), you can use the present or the
future tense of biti (je² +) be as well:
Bojim se da je prekasno. I’m afraid that it’s too late.
bojati se
Bojim se da će biti prekasno. I’m afraid that it will be too late.
bojati se
Consequently, this means if you are afraid that something might not happen, you
will have to use the future tense, where negation, if used, really has a meaning:
Bojim se da neće biti mjesta G . I’m afraid there will/might be no room. bojati se
For impf. verbs, if there’s a negation, it usually means that you are afraid of
something not happening:
Bojim se da nemam vremena G . I’m afraid that I have no time.
bojati se
However, you will see sometimes ‘empty’ negations even with impf. verbs – you
have to apply your common sense then.
Since verbs behave so specially in clauses starting with da after verbs of fear, they
are sometimes called fear clauses.
If someone is afraid something could happen to him or her, regardless of him or her
being the subject of that ‘event’, you cannot use verbs in inf, you have to use a
clause, but of course you can use either the future tense or the present tense (and if
you use a perf. verb, you have to apply the ‘empty’ negation):
Bojim se da ću pasti. I’m afraid I’m going to fall.
bojati se
Bojim se da ne padnem. (the same meaning)
bojati se | pasti
There’s one more common verb that uses fear clauses:
brinuti (brine) (se²) care (o DL); worry (+ clause)
This verb has more uses and meanings, e.g. care and so on, but with clauses, it
means worry. (According to the Standard, it should have an obligatory se², but it’s
often dropped in a colloquial context.) For example:
Brinem se da ne zakasnim na posao A . I worry that I’ll be late to work.
Brinem se da ću zakasniti na posao A . (about the same meaning)
The ‘empty’ negation is completely automatic, most speakers are not aware of it at
all (check the Examples). Many languages have the same feature; if you know some
French, you can see how similar it is (but the negation is not mandatory in French):