Learn Hardcore Croatian: Konobarica donosi žlicu i čaj. - The waitress is bringing a spoon and tea.

Konobarica means “waitress” and is grammatically feminine; the suffix -ica often marks a female profession.
The male form is konobar (“waiter”).
Plurals: feminine konobarice, masculine konobari.

Why is it žlicu and not žlica?

Žlica (“spoon”) is a feminine noun ending in -a. As a direct object, it takes the accusative case.
Feminine -a nouns change -a to -u in the accusative singular: žlica → žlicu.
Same pattern: kava → kavu, salata → salatu.

Why does čaj stay čaj here? Why not čaja or čaju?

Čaj (“tea”) is a masculine inanimate noun. In the singular, the accusative equals the nominative: čaj.
čaja is genitive (“of tea”), čaju is dative/locative (“to/at the tea”), čajem is instrumental (“with tea”).
As a direct object, it’s accusative: čaj.

What exactly does the verb donosi mean—“is bringing” or “brings”?

Donosi is 3rd person singular present of the imperfective verb donositi (“to bring” in progress/habit).
Croatian present covers both English “is bringing” and “brings.”
To stress “right now,” add an adverb: Sada/Trenutno/Upravo donosi žlicu i čaj.

How do I say “will bring”?

Use the perfective verb donijeti with the future auxiliary će:
- Konobarica će donijeti žlicu i čaj.
- If the verb comes first: Donijet će žlicu i čaj.
Perfective present (e.g., kad donese) is used for single, completed events, often in time clauses: Kad donese čaj, počinjemo.

How do I say “brought” or “was bringing”?

“She brought” (completed past, perfective): Konobarica je donijela žlicu i čaj.
“She was bringing/used to bring” (ongoing/habitual past, imperfective): Konobarica je donosila žlicu i čaj.

Can the word order change?

Neutral: Konobarica donosi žlicu i čaj.
To emphasize the objects: Žlicu i čaj donosi konobarica.
To focus the action/objects: Konobarica čaj i žlicu donosi.
Croatian allows flexible order; case endings preserve who does what. Word order shifts nuance/focus.

Do both nouns after i (“and”) take the same case?

Yes. Both žlicu and čaj are direct objects and appear in the accusative.
With adjectives, each item still agrees in gender and case, e.g.:
- Konobarica donosi čistu žlicu i zeleni čaj.
  - čistu (fem. acc. sg.) + žlicu
  - zeleni (masc. acc. sg. inanimate) + čaj

How would this look in the plural?

Objects plural: Konobarica donosi žlice i čajeve.
- žlica → žlice (fem. acc. pl. = nom. pl.)
- čaj → čajeve (masc. acc. pl. often ends in -e; nom. pl. is čajevi)

How do I replace the objects with pronouns?

“it” (masculine, e.g., čaj): ga — Konobarica ga donosi.
“it” (feminine, e.g., žlica): je/ju — Konobarica je (ju) donosi.
“them” (plural): ih — Konobarica ih donosi.
Clitics go to the “second position” in the clause: subject + clitic + verb is common.

How do I pronounce the special letters?

ž = s in “measure” (voiced “zh”)
č = ch in “church”
c = ts in “cats”
žlicu ≈ “ZHLEE-tsu” (the cluster žl is pronounced smoothly); čaj ≈ “chai” (as in “chai tea”).

Why are there no articles (“a/the”)? How can I say “one spoon” or “that tea”?

Croatian has no articles. Context supplies definiteness.
To say “one,” use jedan/jedna/jedno:
- jednu žlicu (fem. acc. sg.), jedan čaj (masc. acc. sg.)
To say “that,” use demonstratives:
- onu žlicu (fem. acc. sg.), taj čaj (masc. acc. sg.)

Is žlica the only word for “spoon”? I’ve seen kašika too.

In standard Croatian: žlica (“spoon”), žličica (“teaspoon”).
In Serbian and much of Bosnian usage: kašika, kašičica.
So you might also hear: Konobarica donosi žličicu i čaj. (more realistic in cafés)

How do I make a natural negative: “The waitress isn’t bringing a spoon or tea”?

Simple negation: Konobarica ne donosi žlicu i čaj.
For “neither… nor…”, use ni… ni…: Konobarica ne donosi ni žlicu ni čaj. (more precise)

How do I turn the sentence into a yes/no question?

In Croatian, insert li after the verb (or move the verb first): Donosi li konobarica žlicu i čaj?
Rising intonation can also signal a question in speech, but li is the clear, standard way in writing.