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Learn Hardcore Croatian: Tekstura je mekana. - The texture is soft.

Hardcore Croatian
/Making pottery with friends at a workshop
/Tekstura je mekana.

Tekstura je mekana.

Tekstura je mekana.

The texture is soft.

Breakdown of Tekstura je mekana.

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Questions & Answers about Tekstura je mekana.

What does je mean here?

Je is the 3rd-person singular present form of biti, which means to be.
So in this sentence, je = is.

tekstura = texture
je = is
mekana = soft

Why is it mekana and not mekan?

Because mekana has to agree with tekstura.

In Croatian, adjectives agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Tekstura is:

feminine
singular
nominative

So the adjective also appears in the feminine singular nominative form: mekana.

Is tekstura feminine?

Yes. Tekstura is a feminine noun.

A very common pattern in Croatian is that nouns ending in -a are feminine, and tekstura follows that pattern. Because it is feminine, the adjective must also be feminine: mekana.

What case is tekstura in, and what case is mekana?

Both are in the nominative singular.

Tekstura is the subject of the sentence.
Mekana is a predicate adjective after je.

After biti (to be), Croatian commonly uses the nominative for this kind of adjective.

Why is there no word for the?

Croatian does not have articles like English the and a/an.

So Tekstura je mekana can mean:

The texture is soft
A texture is soft
simply Texture is soft

In real use, the context tells you which English article makes sense.

Is the word order fixed?

Tekstura je mekana is the normal, neutral word order.

Croatian word order is more flexible than English, so you can move things around for emphasis. For example:

Tekstura je mekana. = neutral
Mekana je tekstura. = more marked, emphasizing soft

One useful thing to notice is that je is a clitic, so it usually likes to stay near the second position in the sentence.

Do I have to include je? Can I say Tekstura mekana?

In normal Croatian, you should include je.

So:

Tekstura je mekana. = correct standard sentence

Without je, the sentence sounds incomplete in ordinary speech. You might see omissions like that only in very special styles, such as notes, headlines, or poetry.

How do I pronounce Tekstura je mekana?

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

teks-TOO-ra yeh meh-KAH-na

A few helpful points:

j in Croatian sounds like English y
each vowel is pronounced clearly
r is trilled or tapped more than in most English accents

So je sounds like yeh, not like English jee.

Could I also hear meka instead of mekana?

Yes, you might.

Croatian also has the adjective mek, with the feminine form meka. So Tekstura je meka is also something you may hear.

That means a learner may come across both:

Tekstura je mekana
Tekstura je meka

Both relate to the idea of soft. For now, the safest thing is to recognize mekana here as a correct feminine form agreeing with tekstura.

What is the difference between mekana tekstura and Tekstura je mekana?

They are related, but they are not the same kind of structure.

mekana tekstura = soft texture
This is a noun phrase.
Tekstura je mekana. = The texture is soft.
This is a full sentence.

So if you want to describe a noun directly, you put the adjective with the noun:

mekana tekstura

If you want to make a complete statement, you use je:

Tekstura je mekana.

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