EasyCroatian_r47.an

Easy Croaan (rev. 47b) / 07 Verbs with Obligatory Objects 44 / 600
While in the first sentence, Goran does something to the window, in the second
sentence, the meaning is completely shifted, as if the window is a subject that ‘does’
something. For all similar verbs (e.g. break, warm, close etc.) you have to use a se² in
the sentences of the second type:
Goran otvara prozor. Goran opens the window.
Prozor se otvara. The window opens.
Another common example:
Ana is cooking the soup.
The soup is cooking, the meat is roasting.
Again, in the second sentence, obviously the soup is not standing by the stove:
English verbs here are used in the alternative meaning. When these sentences are
translated to Croatian, the se² is mandatory:
Ana kuha juhu. ®
Juha se kuha, meso se peče.
peći
(After a comma in Croatian, word-counting restarts: both se²’s are in the second
position.)
This use of se² is common when the action described in a sentence is not performed
by the subject (e.g. juha above) but by someone else, or just happens "on its own"
(e.g. somebody just left the soup to cook). (Also, this explains why se² is used when
someone wakes up on their own.)
This can be summed up as a simple rule: if in English meaning of a verb shifts
when used without an object, when you use the verb without an object in
Croatian, you have to use a se².
If you know any Spanish, everything so far most likely sounded very familiar to you.
There are three important differences, though: while in Spanish the ‘reflexive’
pronoun can be either me, te or se, in Croatian it’s always se².
The second difference is that se² must go to a fixed place in a sentence in Croatian.
The third difference is that in Spanish, the ‘reflexive’ pronoun is often spelled with
the verb when it appears after it (e.g. lavarse = ‘wash themselves’), the same holds
in Italian (e.g. lavarsi) and some other languages. However, the se² is always a
separate word in Croatian.
These are the basics of se². I’ll explain details a bit later, in 64 The Door Opens: Fun
with se².
Finally, there’s a rather strange verb that must use an object or a se²:
igrati play
You can use it with nouns (as objects, of course, put to accusative) meaning games
(or sports):