Glazura je plava.

Je is the 3rd-person singular present form of biti, which means to be.
So here it means is.

The sentence structure is:

• Glazura = the subject
• je = is
• plava = an adjective describing the subject

Because Croatian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case.

Glazura is feminine singular, so the adjective must also be feminine singular:

• plav = masculine
• plava = feminine
• plavo = neuter

So glazura je plava is the correct match.

Because this sentence uses a predicate adjective.

In English, the structure is noun + is + adjective, and Croatian works the same way here:

• Glazura je plava = the glaze/icing is blue

If you want the adjective directly attached to the noun, you would normally say:

• plava glazura = blue glaze/icing

So:

• plava glazura = adjective + noun
• glazura je plava = noun + is
  • adjective

Croatian normally does not use articles.

That means glazura can mean glaze, the glaze, or a glaze, depending on context. English requires an article in many situations, but Croatian usually does not.

So learners often need to get used to the fact that Croatian leaves this unstated unless the context makes it clear.

They are in the nominative singular.

• Glazura is the subject of the sentence, so nominative is expected.
• Plava agrees with glazura, so it is also feminine singular nominative.

This is the normal pattern with biti when an adjective describes the subject.

Because je is a clitic in Croatian.

Clitics are short unstressed words that usually go in the second position of the clause. In this sentence, the first element is Glazura, so je comes right after it:

• Glazura je plava

This second-position behavior is very common in Croatian and is something English speakers often have to get used to.

Yes, you can. Croatian word order is more flexible than English word order.

But the meaning emphasis changes:

• Glazura je plava = neutral, standard statement
• Plava je glazura = more emphasis on plava

Because je is a clitic, it still stays in second position after the first element, which is now Plava.

Not in a normal full sentence.

In standard Croatian, you need the verb to be here:

• Glazura je plava

If you remove je, the sentence would sound incomplete in ordinary usage. In headlines, labels, or very informal notes, words are sometimes omitted, but that is not the normal pattern learners should copy.

Yes, that is a good clue.

Most Croatian nouns ending in -a are feminine, and glazura is one of them. That is why the adjective also takes the feminine form plava.

There are some exceptions to the -a = feminine pattern, especially with some masculine nouns referring to male people, but glazura is a regular feminine noun.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

• Glazura ≈ glah-ZOO-rah
• je ≈ yeh
• plava ≈ PLAH-vah

Croatian spelling is fairly phonetic, so words are usually pronounced close to the way they are written.