Learn Hardcore Croatian: Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva, ali je zadatak težak. - The topic of the meeting today is interesting, but the task is difficult.

Whether you understand tema sastanka as “the topic of the meeting” or “a topic of a meeting” depends on context, not on a special word like the.

Croatian signals definiteness mainly by:

context (what has already been mentioned),
word order,
sometimes demonstratives (ova tema sastanka = this topic of the meeting).

Why is it sastanka and not sastanak after tema?

Because sastanka is in the genitive case, which is used to express “of X”:

tema sastanka literally: “theme/topic of (the) meeting”

Pattern:

sastanak (meeting) – nominative singular (dictionary form)
sastanka – genitive singular: of the meeting

In Croatian, structures like:

tema sastanka – the topic of the meeting
naslov knjige – the title of the book
boja auta – the color of the car

all use noun + noun in genitive to mean “X of Y.”

What case are tema and zadatak in, and why?

Both tema and zadatak are in the nominative singular.

The sentence is essentially two clauses:

Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva.
(Ali) zadatak je težak.

In each clause:

the subject is in the nominative:
- tema (sastanka) = subject
- zadatak = subject
the adjective (predicate) also appears in nominative and agrees with the subject:
- zanimljiva (feminine, singular) agrees with tema
- težak (masculine, singular) agrees with zadatak

Why does zanimljiva end in -a, while težak ends in -ak?

Adjectives in Croatian must agree with the noun in:

gender,
number,
case.

Here:

tema is feminine singular nominative, so the adjective must also be feminine singular nominative:
- zanimljiva (interesting – feminine form)
zadatak is masculine singular nominative, so the adjective is masculine singular nominative:
- težak (difficult – masculine form)

If you change the gender/number, the adjective changes too:

težak zadatak – a difficult task (masc. sg.)
teška tema – a difficult topic (fem. sg.)
teške teme – difficult topics (fem. pl.)
zanimljiv zadatak – an interesting task (masc. sg.)
zanimljive teme – interesting topics (fem. pl.)

Why is je repeated: “… je zanimljiva, ali je zadatak težak”? Can it be omitted or moved?

Je is the 3rd person singular of biti (to be).

You effectively have two clauses:

Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva
ali je zadatak težak

Repeating je clearly marks each clause as a full sentence.

You have a few natural options:

Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva, ali je zadatak težak.
Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva, ali zadatak je težak.

Both are correct. The difference is very small; in (2) you slightly emphasize zadatak by placing it before je.

In everyday speech, people sometimes drop je in short, balanced structures:

Tema sastanka danas zanimljiva, ali zadatak težak.

This sounds elliptical/colloquial or stylistic. For learners and in standard written Croatian, it’s safer to keep je in both clauses.

Is the comma before ali necessary, and is ali always “but”?

In standard Croatian, a comma is placed before ali when it joins two clauses:

… je zanimljiva, ali je zadatak težak.

So here the comma is correct and expected.

Ali usually means “but” (a contrastive conjunction), just like here. In very rare, idiomatic or archaic contexts it can have other nuances, but for modern everyday Croatian you can treat ali as “but.”

Can the position of danas change? For example, can I say “Tema sastanka je danas zanimljiva”?

Yes. Croatian word order is relatively flexible. All of these are grammatically possible, but they sound slightly different:

Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva.
- Neutral, perhaps a bit of focus on danas (today) as a time frame.
Danas je tema sastanka zanimljiva.
- Emphasizes today more: Today, the topic of the meeting is interesting (implying maybe not always).
Tema sastanka je danas zanimljiva.
- Also acceptable; danas is closely tied to je zanimljiva, similar nuance to (1).
Današnja tema sastanka je zanimljiva.
- Literally: Today’s topic of the meeting is interesting.
Tema današnjeg sastanka je zanimljiva.
- Literally: The topic of today’s meeting is interesting.

All are idiomatic; the choice depends on what you want to highlight:

danas at the start emphasizes the time,
današnja / današnjeg shifts “today” into an adjective.

What’s the difference between “tema sastanka danas”, “današnja tema sastanka”, and “tema današnjeg sastanka”?

All can describe the topic in relation to today, but with slightly different focus:

Tema sastanka danas je zanimljiva.
- Literally: The topic of the meeting today is interesting.
- Neutral; danas is an adverb (“today”).
Današnja tema sastanka je zanimljiva.
- Today’s topic of the meeting is interesting.
- današnja is an adjective describing tema: “today’s topic.”
Tema današnjeg sastanka je zanimljiva.
- The topic of today’s meeting is interesting.
- današnjeg is an adjective describing sastanka: “today’s meeting.”

In practice, they are all very close in meaning. Native speakers choose based on style and what they want to stress (the “today-ness” of the topic vs. of the meeting).

Does težak mean “heavy” or “difficult” here? How do I know which one?

Težak can mean both:

physical: heavy (having a lot of weight)
- težak kofer – a heavy suitcase
abstract: hard / difficult / tough
- težak zadatak – a difficult task
- teška situacija – a difficult situation

In this sentence, zadatak (task) is not something you lift, it’s something you do or solve, so težak naturally means “difficult” rather than “heavy.”

Croatian often uses težak zadatak as a fixed collocation for “a difficult task.”

How do you pronounce zanimljiva and težak, especially lj and ž?

Key sounds:

lj in zanimljiva is a single consonant, similar to the “lli” in English million:
- lj ≈ ly in million.
ž in težak is like:
- s in English vision,
- or j in French jour.

Approximate phonetic values:

zanimljiva → /zanimʎiva/
težak → /tɛʒak/

If you pronounce lj as in million and ž as in vision, you’ll be close enough for native speakers to understand you clearly. Precise stress patterns come later; for now, focus on getting these consonant sounds.