Learn Hardcore Croatian: Ne mogu te čuti, jer djeca glasno pričaju u parku. - I can’t hear you because the children are talking loudly in the park.

In Croatian, short unstressed pronouns like te (you, object) are clitics. Clitics have very strict positions in the sentence; they cannot go just anywhere.

In a simple sentence with one verb, clitics normally go right after the first stressed element (often the first word):

Ne mogu te čuti. – correct
Ja te ne mogu čuti. – also correct (clitic after Ja)

But:

Ne mogu čuti te. – sounds wrong/foreign
Ne čuti te mogu. – wrong

So in this sentence the natural place for te is between mogu and čuti (or directly after a subject, if it is present: Ja te ne mogu čuti).

Why is it “te” and not “ti” for “you”?

Croatian has different forms of “you” depending on the case and whether the pronoun is stressed or not.

ti – nominative (subject): Ti pričaš. – You are talking.
tebe – stressed accusative/genitive: Ne čujem tebe, nego njega. – I don’t hear you, but him.
te – unstressed accusative (object): Ne mogu te čuti.

In “Ne mogu te čuti”, you is the direct object of hear, so accusative is required, and in normal speech we use the clitic form te, not the full form tebe.

Why is it “djeca pričaju” and not “djece pričaju”?

Because djeca is the subject of the verb pričaju, so it must be in the nominative case.

djeca – nominative plural (subject form): children
djece – genitive plural: of (the) children

So:

Djeca pričaju. – The children are talking. (subject = djeca → nominative)
Glas djece je glasan. – The children’s voice is loud. (djece = of the children → genitive)

In your sentence, djeca is performing the action (talking), so nominative djeca, not genitive djece, is required.

Why is it “u parku” and not “u park”?

In Croatian, the preposition u takes different cases depending on whether it means location (where?) or movement (where to?):

Location (where?) → locative case
- Djeca pričaju u parku. – The children are talking in the park.
  - park → u parku (locative)
Movement (where to?) → accusative case
- Idem u park. – I’m going to the park.
  - park → u park (accusative)

In your sentence the children are already there, so it’s location, therefore locative: u parku.

Why do we use “jer” here? Could we say “zato što djeca glasno pričaju u parku” instead?

Yes, you can also say:

Ne mogu te čuti, zato što djeca glasno pričaju u parku.

Both jer and zato što introduce a reason (because), but there are small differences in feel:

jer
- Short, very common in speech.
- Slightly more neutral/direct: because.
zato što
- Literally “(it is) for that that…”.
- Often a bit more emphatic: (it’s) because (of the fact) that…
- Can sound a bit more formal or explanatory, but is also used in everyday speech.

In most everyday contexts, jer is perfectly natural and maybe the most typical choice in this sentence.

What is the difference between “pričaju”, “govore”, and “razgovaraju”?

All three relate to speaking, but they’re used differently:

pričati
- To talk, chat, tell (a story).
- Emphasis on the act of talking in general.
- Djeca glasno pričaju. – The children are talking loudly. (good general verb here)
govoriti
- To speak (a language), to say, to deliver a speech.
- More about speaking words / a language:
  - On govori engleski. – He speaks English.
  - On govori istinu. – He is telling the truth.
razgovarati
- To converse, have a conversation, talk with someone.
- Emphasizes two-way conversation:
  - Djeca razgovaraju s učiteljicom. – The children are talking with the teacher.

In your sentence, pričaju is the most natural, because we just mean they are talking (making noise by talking).

Could we change the word order in “djeca glasno pričaju u parku”? For example, “U parku djeca glasno pričaju”?

Yes, Croatian word order is relatively flexible, and all of these are grammatically correct:

Djeca glasno pričaju u parku. – neutral: what are the children doing, and where?
U parku djeca glasno pričaju. – emphasizes the place first: In the park, the children are talking loudly.
Djeca u parku glasno pričaju. – emphasizes that it’s the children in the park (not elsewhere) who are talking loudly.
Glasno djeca pričaju u parku. – sounds more stylistic/poetic; strong emphasis on loudly.

The basic, most neutral version is the one you have: Djeca glasno pričaju u parku.

Why is it “ne mogu” and not written together as “nemogu”?

In Croatian, the negative particle ne is written:

separately from most verbs:
- ne mogu (not nemogu) – I cannot
- ne znam – I don’t know
- ne čujem – I don’t hear
together only with a few verbs, mostly:
- htjeti → neću, nećeš, neće…
- moći only in the future/conditional short form:
  - nemoj! – don’t (do it)!
  - nemojte! – don’t (you, plural)!

Here, mogu is a normal finite verb form (I can), so the rule is: “ne” + verb = two words → ne mogu.

What is the difference between “čuti” and “slušati”?

Both relate to sound, but they’re not the same:

čuti – to hear (perceive sound)
- More passive: sound reaches your ears.
- Ne mogu te čuti. – I can’t hear you.
slušati – to listen (to)
- Active: you are paying attention.
- Slušam te. – I’m listening to you.

In your sentence, the problem is that the speaker doesn’t perceive the sound, so čuti is correct: Ne mogu te čuti.
If you said Ne mogu te slušati, it would mean something like I can’t listen to you (often emotionally: I don’t want to listen to you).

What tense and person is “mogu”, and what is the infinitive of this verb?

mogu is:
- 1st person singular,
- present tense,
- of the verb moći – to be able, can.

Present tense of moći:

ja mogu – I can
ti možeš – you can (sg, informal)
on/ona/ono može – he/she/it can
mi možemo – we can
vi možete – you can (pl / formal)
oni/one/ona mogu – they can

So Ne mogu te čuti literally: I cannot hear you.

Is the comma before “jer” always required in Croatian?

Yes, in standard written Croatian a comma is required before jer when it introduces a reason clause:

Ne mogu te čuti, jer djeca glasno pričaju u parku.
Kasnim, jer je bio veliki promet. – I’m late because there was heavy traffic.

You normally cannot just drop the comma in standard writing. In very informal texts (messages, chats), people sometimes skip commas, but that is not considered correct according to the rules.