EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 86 More Verbs and Standing Outcomes 473 / 600
anymore is this:
Otvorio sam prozor A i poslije ga A zatvorio. I’ve opened the window and 3m/n
closed it later.
So, the second verb ‘undoes’ the first. It’s actually more general: only the last
perfective verb in the sequence counts. That is, if you say:
Otvorio sam prozor A i oprao ga A . I’ve opened the window and washed it. 3m/n
It would imply only it’s washed now, not whether it’s open or closed. This is a very
subtle, but important principle: only the last outcome in a sequence ‘stands’. We
could paraphrase it as the last outcome standing! This likely sounds extremely
complicated, but an example will make it (hopefully) clear (‘standing outcomes’ are
in red):
example
Išla sam u trgovinu A .
I was going/went to the shop.
Otišla sam u trgovinu A .
I have gone to the shop.
Otišla sam u trgovinu A i kupila pivo A .
I went to the shop and bought beer.
Otišla sam u trgovinu A , kupila pivo A i popila ga A .
I went to the shop, bought beer and drank it.
Pala sam.
I fell.
implies
imperfective!
no implications whatsoever
(I’m in the shop)
(I have some beer)
(no beer; I might be drunk)
involuntary event!
no implications
However, the ‘standing outcome’ doesn’t apply to all perf. verbs – only to voluntary
ones. Check the last row: pala sam doesn’t imply I’m still on the floor: it’s not
something I did voluntary. It just happened.
Note that the impf. verb doesn’t really say we got to the shop at all. It just says we
were going there, there was some action. But if we don’t say there were some
problems on the way there, it’s enough. So the default, shortest way of saying
something with a ‘standing outcome’ – if the ‘standing outcome’ doesn’t hold
anymore – would be actually using the impf. verb.
Therefore, perf. involuntary verbs are used much more often than voluntary ones.
In real life, this rule is not completely clear-cut: you will hear both just išla sam u
trgovinu and otišla sam u trgovinu for completed actions in the past and for
speaker being obviously not in the shop anyomore.
The important thing is that you will hear impf. verbs where you would naively – due
to completion – expect perf. ones. Always keep in mind that perf. verbs are not just