Vrč is in the nominative singular.
In this sentence, vrč is the subject — the thing that belongs to someone. In Croatian, the subject is normally in the nominative case.
So:
Because the verb pripadati requires the dative case.
So the noun lončar changes from its basic form to the dative singular:
This is one of the most important things to learn with Croatian verbs: many verbs require a specific case after them.
Pripadati is one of the verbs that take the dative.
So you learn it as:
Yes. Pripada is the 3rd person singular present tense form of pripadati.
That means it matches a singular subject such as ovaj vrč.
A simple breakdown:
Since vrč is singular, pripada is the correct form.
Because that is just how this verb works in Croatian grammar.
In English, we say belongs to the potter, using to.
In Croatian, the idea of to the potter is expressed by putting lončar into the dative case.
So instead of adding a separate word like to, Croatian often changes the noun ending.
That is why:
Croatian does not normally use articles like the or a/an.
So where English says:
Croatian usually just uses the noun by itself, and the exact meaning depends on context.
In this sentence:
The demonstrative ovaj gives the noun a more specific meaning, similar to this in English.
Yes, Croatian word order is fairly flexible.
The neutral, straightforward order here is:
But other orders are possible, depending on emphasis:
These alternatives can sound more marked or emphasize a different part of the sentence.
For a learner, the original order is the safest and most natural one to use first.
The dictionary form is lončar.
When you look up nouns, you usually find them in the nominative singular, which is the basic form. Then the ending changes depending on case.
Here:
Grammatically, lončar is a masculine noun. It usually refers to a male potter.
If you specifically wanted to refer to a female potter, Croatian would usually use a different noun form, depending on usage and context.
For this sentence, the important grammar point is that lončar behaves like a regular masculine noun ending in a consonant, and its dative singular is lončaru.
Because ovaj is placed directly with vrč, forming the noun phrase ovaj vrč.
Also, the forms match:
But lončaru is in the dative, so if a demonstrative were modifying it, it would need a dative form, not ovaj.
So the sentence structure is:
The letter č is pronounced roughly like ch in church, but usually a bit firmer in Croatian.
So:
This is different from ć, which is a softer sound. In this sentence, both words use č, not ć.
Yes. In Croatian, grammatical gender is not the same thing as biological sex.
Vrč is masculine simply because that is its grammatical class. Many inanimate objects are masculine, feminine, or neuter.
So:
This matters because adjectives, demonstratives, and sometimes past tense forms must agree with the noun’s grammatical gender.
Yes, grammatically that is fine.
Leaving out ovaj removes the idea of this and makes the sentence less specific.
So both are correct, but they mean slightly different things.
Very often, yes, but the grammar around it is different.
The main difference is:
So a useful pattern to memorize is:
In this sentence:
So the structure is very regular once you learn the case pattern.
A very useful set of takeaways would be:
A good mini-pattern to remember is:
That pattern will help you make many similar sentences.