Držite ruke iznad lončarskog kola.

Držite is the imperative form of držati, meaning to hold / keep.

In this sentence, it means hold or keep as a command.

A useful thing to know is that držite can also be the present tense form meaning you hold / you are holding. Croatian often relies on context to show whether something is a statement or a command. Here, the sentence is clearly an instruction, so it is understood as an imperative.

It can be either:

• to several people: you all hold / keep
• to one person formally: please hold / keep

Croatian uses the same 2nd person plural form for:

• real plural you
• formal singular you

If you were speaking to one person informally, you would say:

Drži ruke iznad lončarskog kola.

Ruke is the accusative plural form of ruka (hand).

It is in the accusative because it is the direct object of držite:

• držati što? = to hold what?
• ruke = hands

So the structure is basically:

• Držite = Hold / Keep
• ruke = your hands

Also, for ruka, the nominative plural and accusative plural are both ruke, so the form looks the same in both cases.

In Croatian, with body parts, the possessive is often omitted when it is obvious whose body part is meant.

So Držite ruke... naturally means Keep your hands...

Croatian often prefers this shorter style when the owner is clear from context.

You could say Držite svoje ruke..., but that usually sounds more emphatic, contrastive, or less natural in a simple instruction.

Because the preposition iznad normally takes the genitive case.

So after iznad (above), the noun phrase has to be in the genitive:

• dictionary form: lončarsko kolo
• after iznad: lončarskog kola

Both words change because the adjective must agree with the noun in case, number, and gender.

Lončarskog is the genitive singular form of the adjective lončarski, which means potter’s or related to pottery / a potter.

It agrees with kola, which is also in the genitive singular.

So:

• lončarsko kolo = potter’s wheel
• iznad lončarskog kola = above the potter’s wheel

Because kolo has changed into the genitive singular form kola after iznad.

So:

• kolo = base form
• kola = genitive singular

This is not plural here. In this sentence, it still means one potter’s wheel.

That can be confusing because kola can look like a plural form in other contexts, but here it is simply the genitive singular of kolo.

No, Croatian word order is fairly flexible, but this order is very natural for an instruction:

Držite ruke iznad lončarskog kola.

Starting with the verb is common in commands.

You could rearrange it for emphasis, for example:

Ruke držite iznad lončarskog kola.

That might put a little more focus on hands, but the original version sounds straightforward and normal.

Sometimes yes, but iznad is very natural here.

• iznad + genitive = above
• nad + instrumental can also mean over / above

So another possible structure would be something like:

Držite ruke nad lončarskim kolom.

But iznad lončarskog kola is very clear and idiomatic for physical position above something.

For a learner, the safest choice in a sentence like this is the one you have here: iznad + genitive.

The sentence follows a very common pattern:

imperative verb + direct object + prepositional phrase

So here:

• Držite = imperative verb
• ruke = direct object in the accusative plural
• iznad lončarskog kola = prepositional phrase, with iznad requiring the genitive

That makes the sentence a good example of how Croatian gives instructions:

• command first
• object next
• location or position after that