No. 423 in Croatian
trebali
"Trebali" means "should" or "needed" (past tense, plural form).
In a sentence
Trebali bismo se pridružiti volontiranju u zajednici.
We should join volunteering in the community.
In this sentence, 'trebali' is used as a modal verb suggesting obligation or recommendation, and it is conjugated in the conditional mood.
Da su trebali pomoći, situacija bi bila bolja.
If they had needed to help, the situation would have been better.
Here, 'trebali' is used in the past conditional to express an unrealized necessity or expectation.
Trebali su stići prije sat vremena.
They were supposed to arrive an hour ago.
In this example, 'trebali' expresses an obligation or expectation in the past that was not fulfilled.
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