Learn Croatian: Laku noć! Soba je čista. - Good night! The room is clean.

When you wish someone a good night, morning, or day, Croatian uses the accusative case (the form used for direct objects). The basic phrase is laka noć, but it changes to laku noć because it is grammatically short for 'I wish you a good night'.

Is the word noć (night) masculine or feminine?

Noć is feminine. Most feminine words in Croatian end in -a, but there is a special group of feminine nouns that end in a consonant. You can tell it is feminine here because the adjective laku takes the feminine ending -u.

Where is the word for 'the' in Soba je čista?

Croatian does not have words for 'the' or 'a'. The single word soba can mean 'room', 'a room', or 'the room', depending entirely on the context of the conversation.

Why does the word čista end in -a?

In Croatian, adjectives must match the gender of the noun they describe. Because soba is a feminine noun, the base adjective čist (clean) takes the feminine ending -a to become čista.