Punomoć mora biti valjana.

Punomoć is a noun, and it is feminine.

You can tell this from the adjective in the sentence: valjana is the feminine singular form, so it agrees with punomoć.

This noun is commonly used in legal or administrative contexts and means power of attorney or authorization, depending on context.

Mora is the 3rd person singular present tense of morati (to have to, must).

Since punomoć is singular, the verb is also singular:

• punomoć mora = the power of attorney must

Compare:

• Punomoć mora biti valjana. = The power of attorney must be valid.
• Punomoći moraju biti valjane. = The powers of attorney must be valid.

Biti means to be. In this sentence, it is part of the structure:

• morati + infinitive

So:

• mora biti = must be

This is directly parallel to English:

• must be valid
• mora biti valjana

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

Here, punomoć is:

• feminine
• singular
• nominative (the subject of the sentence)

So the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:

• masculine: valjan
• feminine: valjana
• neuter: valjano

Examples:

• Dokument je valjan. = The document is valid.
• Punomoć je valjana. = The power of attorney is valid.
• Rješenje je valjano. = The decision/solution is valid.

Here valjana means valid, legally valid, or acceptable as officially correct.

It is a bit more formal than some everyday English words like okay or good. In legal and administrative language, valjan/valjana/valjano is very common.

So in this sentence it means that the power of attorney must be legally or officially valid.

Yes. Punomoć je valjana means The power of attorney is valid.

The difference is:

• Punomoć je valjana. = statement of fact
• Punomoć mora biti valjana. = requirement / necessity

So mora biti adds the meaning of must be.

Not in standard Croatian in this sentence.

You need:

• Punomoć mora biti valjana.

You cannot normally say:

• Punomoć mora valjana. ✗

After morati, if the meaning is must be, the infinitive biti must stay.

It is in the nominative singular, because it is the subject of the sentence.

You can think of the structure like this:

• Punomoć = subject
• mora biti = verbal part
• valjana = predicate adjective describing the subject

Because the adjective refers back to the subject, it also appears in nominative singular feminine.

The most neutral word order is:

• Punomoć mora biti valjana.

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, so other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Valjana mora biti punomoć.
• Mora biti valjana punomoć.

But these sound more marked or stylistically specific. For a learner, the safest and most natural order is the original one.

You negate morati with ne:

• Punomoć ne mora biti valjana.

This means:

• The power of attorney does not have to be valid.

Be careful: this does not mean must not be valid.

If you want must not be valid, that is a different idea and would usually need a different wording depending on context.

A common way is:

• Mora li punomoć biti valjana?

This means:

• Must the power of attorney be valid?

You may also hear intonation-based questions in speech, but Mora li... is a very standard written and spoken pattern.

Not exactly.

• morati = must / have to → stronger obligation
• trebati = should / need to or sometimes be needed, depending on structure

So:

• Punomoć mora biti valjana. = The power of attorney must be valid.
• Punomoć treba biti valjana. = The power of attorney should be valid / is supposed to be valid.

In legal or official requirements, morati is usually stronger and more precise.

A simple approximate pronunciation for an English speaker is:

• poo-no-moch

More carefully:

• pu as in put but longer
• no as in not without the English diphthong
• moć ends with ć, a soft sound somewhat like a very soft ch/ty sound

The letter ć is not exactly the same as English ch. It is softer. Even if you do not produce it perfectly at first, Croatian speakers will usually understand you.

Yes, it sounds formal and especially suitable for legal, administrative, or official language.

That is because both punomoć and valjana are common in formal contexts. In everyday speech, people might use simpler wording depending on the situation, but this sentence itself is perfectly natural in official Croatian.

Here are the common versions:

• Punomoć je morala biti valjana. = The power of attorney had to be valid.
• Punomoć će morati biti valjana. = The power of attorney will have to be valid.

Notice that in the past, morati agrees with the feminine subject:

• morala because punomoć is feminine

That agreement is a very important feature of past tense in Croatian.