Kokice su između grickalica i sredstva protiv komaraca.

Su means are. It is the 3rd person plural present-tense form of biti (to be).

So:

• kokice su = the popcorn is / popcorn is

Croatian uses su because kokice is treated as a plural noun grammatically.

In Croatian, kokice is normally used as a plural noun when talking about popcorn in general. So Croatian says:

• Kokice su... not Kokice je...

The singular kokica usually means one piece of popcorn. This is a common difference between Croatian and English grammar.

Croatian does not have articles like the or a/an.

So Croatian simply says:

• Kokice su između grickalica i sredstva protiv komaraca.

Whether English would use the, a, or no article at all depends on context, but Croatian does not mark that with separate words.

Između means between.

It normally takes the genitive case. That is why the nouns after it are not in their basic dictionary forms.

The pattern is:

• između X i Y = between X and Y

In this sentence:

• grickalica is genitive plural
• sredstva is genitive singular

The basic plural form is grickalice (snacks), but after između, Croatian needs the genitive plural, which here is grickalica.

So:

• nominative plural: grickalice
• genitive plural: grickalica

This change is very common with feminine nouns ending in -a.

Here, sredstva is genitive singular of sredstvo.

That can be confusing, because sredstva can also be a plural form in other contexts. But in this sentence, after između, it is singular because the meaning is one mosquito repellent / mosquito-control product.

Useful forms:

• nominative singular: sredstvo
• genitive singular: sredstva
• nominative plural: sredstva
• genitive plural: sredstava

So the form sredstva can have more than one grammatical role; context tells you which one it is.

Protiv means against.

The preposition protiv requires the genitive case, so:

• komarac = mosquito
• komaraca = of mosquitoes / against mosquitoes

So:

• sredstvo protiv komaraca literally means a средство against mosquitoes
• in natural English, that is mosquito repellent

Both words relate to position, but they are not the same.

• između = between
• među = among

In this sentence, između is correct because the popcorn is located between two reference points:

• grickalica
• sredstva protiv komaraca

By contrast, među is more like being among a group:

• među ljudima = among people

Also, među usually goes with the instrumental, while između goes with the genitive.

Croatian word order is fairly flexible, but not completely free.

Kokice su između grickalica i sredstva protiv komaraca. is a neutral, natural order.

You can move parts of the sentence for emphasis, but you must be careful with su, because it is a clitic and usually appears near the beginning of the sentence, often in second position.

So the given order is a good standard model for learners.

Kokice means popcorn specifically.

Grickalice means snacks, nibbles, or snack foods in general.

So popcorn can be one kind of grickalica / grickalice, but kokice is much more specific.

A rough English-friendly approximation is eez-MEH-joo, but that is only approximate.

The tricky part is đ:

• đ is a soft sound, somewhere around a soft j or dy sound
• it is not the same as plain English j, but that approximation can help at first

So između is roughly:

• eez-MEH-dyoo or eez-MEH-joo

The best way to master it is to hear native pronunciation and imitate it.