Word Order of the Enclitics

Normally after:

• The first element in the sentence: Prijatelj mi jerekao da …
• Or the whole phrase: jedan moj stari prijatelj mi je rekao da…
• Ne + verb is treated as one word: On je na putu i ne može nam se javiti. Ne ide mi se na taj sastanak.

Some conjunctions cannot be treated as the first word in a sentence because they are followed by a pause or even separated with a coma, like:

Dakle, nisam mu mogla pomoći

Ne znam ništa o tome, ali ću se raspitati.

• Enclitics must start after a word introducers, interrogatives, relative pronouns, some conjunctions: da, šta ako, jer, iako, prije nego što, koji…

Rekao je da mu je pomogao.

Prije nego što smo im pomogli dobro smo razmislili.

Iako mu je rekao da će mu dati adresu, nije mu je dao.

On je političar o kojem su mi svi pričali.

Nije bilo onako kako si mi ti obećao.

• The conjunctions: iako, ali, ili, jer… maybe treated as teh first word in a sentence thus enclitic can follow them

Iako im je poslao poruku nisu došli na sastanak.

Bili smo zauzeti, jer su nam došli gosti.

Specifics:

• Encltics cannot come after inserted sentence

Mislim da, iako su veze loše, doći će na vrijeme.

• If it is not placed after first stressed word it comes after predicate.

Tek na ulici dođe mi do pameti šta su u stvari htjeli reći.

An enclitic can never occur:

1. As the first word in a sentence
2. After the negative particles ne, ni
3. After the conjunctions i, a
4. After most prepositions

An enclitic occurs:

1. After the first stressed word (or a whole phrase)
2. After: ali, jer, ili, čim (as linking words)
3. After clause introducers as: da, jer, ako
4. After relative pronouns: koji, čiji, što, ko
5. After interrogatives: gdje, kada, kako, zašto…

If more than one enclitic occurs in the same sentence their order of precedence is as follows:

The question particle	Verbal enclitics	Dative	Accusative/Genitive	Reflexive pronoun	3. person present tense of biti
Li	Sam, si, smo, ste, su	mi, ti, mu, joj, nam, vam, im	me, te, ga, je/ju, nas, vas, ih	se	je
	Ću, ćeš, će, ćemo, ćete, će		Me, te, ga, je, nas, vas, ih
	Bih, bi, bi, bismo, biste, bi

To sum up: Enclitics always follow: DA, KAD, KOJI, AKO, JER, ČIM, GDJE, IAKO, ALI

Enclitics never occur: as the first word, after NE, NI, I, A  and prepositions!