Learn Croatian: Iako je situacija teška, imamo podršku prijatelja. - Although the situation is difficult, we have the support of our friends.

Je is an enclitic, which is a weak word that lacks its own stress. According to Croatian word order rules, enclitics naturally want to sit in the second position of their clause. Since the conjunction Iako takes the first position, je tucks in right behind it.

The lesson is about verbs taking the dative case. Why is podršku in the accusative?

Because the verb driving this clause is imamo (we have), and the thing you have must be in the accusative case as a direct object. This provides a contrast to your current lesson: having support takes the accusative, but if you used a verb like pomagati (to help), the person being helped would take the dative.

Wait, doesn't prijatelja mean 'of one friend'?

It can, but here it is the genitive plural, meaning 'of friends'. For masculine nouns like prijatelj, the genitive singular and genitive plural are often spelled exactly the same, both ending in -a. You have to rely on context to know it means plural here. In spoken Croatian, the final -a in the plural is pronounced with a much longer vowel sound.

Why are situacija and teška in the nominative case if the rest of the sentence uses other cases?