Learn Croatian: Mala prasad brzo trči oko štale. - The small piglets are running fast around the barn.

The word prasad is a collective noun meaning a group of piglets. In Croatian, all collective nouns ending in -ad (like unučad for grandchildren) are grammatically feminine singular. Because of this, any adjective describing them must also be in the feminine singular form, which is why we use Mala.

Why is the verb trči in the singular when the English translation says "are running"?

Even though prasad refers to multiple animals in real life, it is grammatically a singular noun. Therefore, the verb must match it in the third-person singular form (trči). You can think of it as saying "the group of piglets runs" in English.

What if I only want to talk about one piglet, or a specific number of them?

To talk about a single piglet, you use the neuter noun prase. If you are counting specific piglets (like two, three, or four), you use the genitive singular praseta. However, for a general group of them, the collective noun prasad is the most natural choice.

Why is the word for barn štale here instead of the dictionary form štala?

The preposition oko (around) always requires the noun that follows it to take the genitive case. Since štala is a regular feminine noun ending in -a, its genitive singular form drops the -a and adds -e, making it štale.