Breakdown of Vlak je na kolodvoru.
biti
to be (sam, si, je)
na
on, at / to, onto (with motion) / about (thinking about)
vlak
train
kolodvor
railway station
Questions & Answers about Vlak je na kolodvoru.
Why does this sentence use na instead of u to mean "at"?
In Croatian, the preposition na (which often means "on") is used for public transport hubs, open spaces, and flat surfaces. A railway station (kolodvor) is treated as a platform or transit point, so it takes na instead of u (which usually means "in" or "enclosed inside").
Why is the word for station spelled kolodvoru instead of kolodvor?
Because it comes after the preposition na to show a location, which means it must change to the locative case. For masculine nouns like kolodvor, you form the locative by adding the ending -u to the end of the word.
Does kolodvor always mean "railway station"?
On its own, kolodvor usually refers to a train station. However, you will also hear it used for the main bus station if you add an adjective first (autobusni kolodvor).
Can I change the word order to put the location first?
Yes! Word order is very flexible in Croatian. If you want to say "At the station is the train," you can say Na kolodvoru je vlak. Notice that the little verb je stays in the second position of the sentence.