A very common clue is the ending -a. Many Croatian nouns ending in -a are feminine.
So:
This is why both the demonstrative (ova) and the adjective (lijepa) also appear in feminine singular form.
Because adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.
Here, keramika is:
So the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:
That is why the sentence says Ova keramika je lijepa.
It is in the nominative case.
Why? Because keramika is the subject of the sentence:
In simple X is Y sentences, the subject is normally in the nominative.
In standard Croatian, je is the normal present-tense form of to be for he/she/it is.
So:
Unlike some languages, Croatian usually does not omit the verb to be in ordinary present-tense statements like this.
So Ova keramika lijepa would generally sound incomplete or nonstandard in normal usage.
It depends on context.
Keramika can refer to things like:
Grammatically, though, it is treated here as a singular feminine noun. So even if English might sometimes use a plural-like idea such as ceramics, Croatian still uses singular grammar in this sentence.
Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, though Ova keramika je lijepa is the most neutral order.
Other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:
So the basic meaning can stay similar, but the emphasis changes.
Croatian has no articles like English a or the.
So Croatian often expresses definiteness through context, word order, or words like demonstratives:
Here, ova already makes the noun specific, so no article is needed.
A simple approximation is:
The tricky part is lj, which is a single Croatian sound, similar to the lli in some pronunciations of million, though not exactly the same in every English accent.
Also:
So the whole sentence is approximately:
Yes, but it means something slightly different.
So ova and ta are not interchangeable in every context. Ova points to something closer or more directly present in the speaker’s focus.