Learn Croatian: Kuhar treba zdjelu tjestenine. - The cook needs a bowl of pasta.

The dictionary form is tjestenina, which is a feminine noun. Because we are saying a bowl of pasta, we need the genitive case to show quantity. For feminine nouns ending in -a, you drop the -a and add -e to make the genitive singular.

Is there a Croatian word for "of" in this sentence?

No, there is no separate word for "of". In English, we say "a bowl of pasta". In Croatian, the meaning of "of" is built directly into the word tjestenine by changing its ending to the genitive case.

Why is the word for bowl spelled zdjelu instead of zdjela?

Zdjela (bowl) is the direct object of the sentence because it is what the cook needs. Therefore, it must be in the accusative case. For feminine nouns ending in -a, the accusative ending changes to -u.

Where are the words for "the" and "a" in this sentence?

Croatian does not use articles like "the" or "a". The words Kuhar and zdjelu translate to "The cook" and "a bowl" purely based on what makes the most sense in the English translation.