Nadzorni inženjer mora provjeriti građevinski materijal i radnu snagu.

Nadzorni is an adjective meaning supervisory or inspection-related. In this sentence, it describes inženjer, so nadzorni inženjer means supervising engineer / site supervisor / supervisory engineer, depending on context.

It is nadzorni, not nadzoran, because these are not the same form or meaning in use:

• nadzorni inženjer = a standard job title meaning a supervising engineer
• nadzoran is more like supervised or can sound adjectival in a different way, not the normal title here

So you should learn nadzorni inženjer as a fixed professional expression.

This is a very common Croatian pattern:

• morati = must / have to
• provjeriti = to check / to inspect

So:

• mora = he/she/it must
• provjeriti = infinitive, to check

Together, mora provjeriti means must check.

Croatian often uses a conjugated modal verb plus an infinitive, just like English:

• Mora doći. = He/She must come.
• Mora provjeriti materijal. = He/She must check the material.

Because after morati, Croatian normally uses the infinitive.

So:

• mora provjeriti = must check
• not mora provjerava

Also, provjeriti is the perfective verb, which often suggests checking something as a completed action. That fits well with a duty or task: the engineer must carry out the check.

Compare:

• provjeriti = to check, complete the check
• provjeravati = to be checking, to check repeatedly or habitually

So this sentence presents the checking as a concrete required action.

Because both are direct objects, so they are in the accusative case, but they belong to different noun types.

1. građevinski materijal

   • materijal is masculine singular, inanimate
   • for masculine inanimate nouns, accusative singular usually looks the same as nominative singular
   • so materijal stays materijal

2. radna snaga

   • snaga is feminine singular
   • feminine nouns in -a usually change to -u in the accusative singular
   • so radna snaga becomes radnu snagu

The adjectives also change to match:

• građevinski materijal
• radna snaga → radnu snagu

Because adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in:

• gender
• number
• case

Here, snaga is:

• feminine
• singular
• accusative

So the adjective must match that:

• nominative: radna snaga
• accusative: radnu snagu

This is normal adjective agreement in Croatian.

Literally, yes, the parts are:

• radna = work-related / labor
• snaga = strength / force

But as a phrase, radna snaga usually means:

• workforce
• labor force
• labor

So in this sentence it does not usually mean physical strength. It refers to the available workers or labor resources.

Not necessarily. In Croatian, as in English, a singular noun can be used in a collective or mass sense.

So građevinski materijal often means:

• building material in general
• construction material as a category
• the material being used on the site

It does not have to mean just one single item.

If you wanted to emphasize multiple separate materials, Croatian could also use a plural expression in some contexts, but the singular here is perfectly natural.

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

So:

• inženjer can mean an engineer or the engineer
• materijal can mean material or the material
• radna snaga can mean workforce or the workforce

The exact meaning is understood from context.

This is one of the big differences between English and Croatian.

The given order is natural and standard:

• Nadzorni inženjer mora provjeriti građevinski materijal i radnu snagu.

But Croatian word order is more flexible than English, because case endings show grammatical roles.

For example, you might also see:

• Građevinski materijal i radnu snagu nadzorni inženjer mora provjeriti.

This gives more emphasis to the things being checked.

Still, for a neutral sentence, the original word order is the most straightforward: subject + modal verb + infinitive + objects

Yes. I means and.

It links the two direct objects:

• građevinski materijal
• radnu snagu

So the engineer must check both things.

Because it is in the nominative case, which is the usual case for the subject.

You can tell from the forms:

• nadzorni inženjer = nominative singular
• građevinski materijal = accusative singular
• radnu snagu = accusative singular

Also, the verb mora is third person singular, which fits inženjer as the subject: the supervising engineer must...

Inženjer is grammatically masculine. In mixed or general professional language, masculine forms are often used as neutral job titles.

If you specifically want to refer to a woman, Croatian may use a feminine form depending on style and regional preference, for example:

• inženjerka
• sometimes inženjerica in some usage patterns, though inženjerka is more common

Then the adjective would also change:

• nadzorna inženjerka

But in official or general contexts, you may still encounter the masculine form.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• građevinski ≈ GRA-jyeh-vin-ski
• đ is a soft sound, somewhat like the j in judge, but lighter
• ž sounds like the s in measure
• č sounds like ch in church
• ć is also a ch-like sound, but softer

For the key words:

• nadzorni ≈ nad-ZOR-nee
• inženjer ≈ in-zhe-NYER
• provjeriti ≈ pro-vye-ri-ti
• građevinski ≈ GRA-jye-vin-ski
• snagu ≈ SNA-gu

Exact pronunciation varies a little by region, but those approximations are a helpful start.