Placing Short Unstressed Words

Level 3

Short unstressed words need preceding material to lean on.

How It Works

Clitics include sam, je, će, mi, ga and se. They cannot normally start a standalone clause in their unstressed use. Full stressed forms have different distribution.

With a short subject, Ana je stigla is straightforward. With an initial multiword phrase, several placements are possible: Moja je sestra stigla and Moja sestra stigla je rano show two useful patterns.

Some splits inside a name or a long phrase sound marked. Read and learn complete neutral phrases; counting spaces cannot capture the spoken units on which clitics depend.

Examples (3)

  1. Ana je stigla.

    Ana has arrived.

    Je follows the short subject.

  2. Moja je sestra stigla.

    My sister has arrived.

    Je can occur after the first stressed word of the subject phrase.

  3. Moja sestra stigla je rano.

    My sister arrived early.

    Je follows the lexical participle after the initial noun phrase.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Placing Short Unstressed WordsLevel 3

Learn This First

The familiar short auxiliary and object forms reveal the shared placement domain.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.