Naručitelj radova čita ugovor.

Because radova is genitive plural.

The head noun is naručitelj and it is followed by another noun that tells us of what / for what: naručitelj radova. In Croatian, that relationship is often expressed with the genitive.

• radovi = works
• radova = of works

So radova depends on naručitelj.

In construction/business language, radovi often means works in the sense of construction or project work, so naručitelj radova is a normal phrase.

Naručitelj is in the nominative singular because it is the subject of the sentence.

It is the one doing the action of čita.

So the basic structure is:

• naručitelj radova = subject
• čita = verb
• ugovor = object

Because ugovor is a masculine inanimate noun, and in Croatian the accusative singular of masculine inanimate nouns is usually the same as the nominative singular.

So:

• nominative: ugovor
• accusative: ugovor

That is why the direct object does not visibly change here.

Compare that with a masculine animate noun, where the accusative usually changes:

• nominative: čovjek
• accusative: čovjeka

It can mean both, depending on context.

Croatian present tense often covers both:

• he/she reads
• he/she is reading

So čita can describe:

• a general/habitual action, or
• an action happening right now

You usually understand which one is meant from the situation, not from a separate verb form like in English.

Čita is the 3rd person singular present tense of čitati.

So it agrees with a singular subject such as naručitelj.

You can think of it like:

• ja čitam = I read / am reading
• ti čitaš = you read / are reading
• on/ona čita = he/she reads / is reading

Yes, čitati is imperfective.

That matters because imperfective verbs are normally used for:

• ongoing actions
• repeated actions
• general actions

So čita ugovor is natural for reading a contract as a process.

The perfective partner is often pročitati, which suggests reading something through to completion. Croatian does not usually use the present tense of a perfective verb for an action happening right now in the same way English does.

So for a neutral sentence like this, čita is exactly what you would expect.

Yes. Croatian word order is fairly flexible because case endings help show who is doing what.

The neutral order here is:

• Naručitelj radova čita ugovor.

But other orders are possible, for example:

• Ugovor čita naručitelj radova.
• Čita ugovor naručitelj radova.

These alternatives can sound more marked and may shift the focus or emphasis, but the basic roles are still clear because:

• naručitelj is nominative
• ugovor is accusative (even though it looks the same as nominative here)

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

So a noun like ugovor can mean:

• a contract
• the contract

Context tells you which is intended.

The same is true for naručitelj:

• a client / ordering party
• the client / the ordering party

Two sounds often catch English speakers here:

• č = roughly like ch in church
• lj = a single sound, roughly similar to the lli in some pronunciations of million, though not exactly the same for all English speakers

So in naručitelj:

• č is a clear ch sound
• lj at the end is not pronounced as separate English l + y in a clumsy way; it is a single palatal sound

Also, čita begins with that same č sound.

Yes, naručitelj is grammatically masculine singular.

In Croatian, job titles and role nouns are often masculine in dictionary form. If you specifically want a feminine form, you may use naručiteljica.

In formal or legal language, the masculine form can sometimes be used as a role label regardless of the actual person's sex, depending on style and context.

It is a very common technical/legal/business expression, especially in construction-related contexts.

Croatian often builds these role labels as:

• noun + genitive noun

So naručitelj radova is a normal way to say the party that commissions/orders the works.

Even if you know the individual words, it helps to learn the whole phrase as a unit because it is common in real-world documents.